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BOSTON, 




MASS. 





T 



"The Palac3 Line of Boston Harbor." 



THE ONLY LINE LANDING PASSENGERS DIRECTLY 
ON NANTASKET BEACH. 




STEAMERS 

"NANTASKET," ''GOV. ANDREW," ''ROSE STANDISH," 
AND "JOHN ROMER." 

WILL MAKE DAILY EXCURSIONS TO 

hiM Isach, Mm Lanling, linjliaiii !: Bull, 

JLeaviiiff HOWE'S WHAItF, 340 Atlantic Ave. Junction with 
Broad St., every hour of the day during June, July and August. 



FOR TIME-TABLES &c., SEE BOSTON DAILY PAPERS. 



" Nantasket," "Rockland," and "Atlantic on Nantasket 
Beach and "Hose Standish House" at Downer Landing, 

are the finest and most elegant Sea-Side Hotels in New England, and the 

Beaches offer much to attract visitors for a day during the season, 

while the Surf -bathing is unsurpassed. 



The Melville Garden at Downer Landing, 

AFFORDS UNUSUAL FACILITIES FOR. 

SABBATH SCHOOL EXCURSIONS.irs-AXD A GEXUIXE "RHODE ISLVND 
PICNIC Oil DAY VISITORS. ^^ CLAM BAKE" IS SERVED DAILY. 



FJIlXIE EJLCH TVA.Y, 35 OEIVTS. 

JOHI\/ C. WHITON, Supt, 7 Rome's Wharf, Boston. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



OF 



BOSTON HARBOR 



COMPILED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES, GIVING A COMPLETE 
AND RELIABLE HISTORY OF EVERY ISLAND AND HEAD- 
LAND IN THE HARBOR, FROM THE EARLIEST 
DATE TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

Profusely Illustrated, and containing a Correct Map of the Harbor, 



BY JAMES H. ^TARK. 




^ 



BOSTON : 
PUBLISHED BY THE PHOTO-ELECTROTYPE COMPANY, 

171 DEVONSHIRE STREET. 
1880. 



Copyright, 1880. 
By the Photo-Electkotyfe Co., Boston. 



Illustrated, Electrotyped, and Printed by the 
Photo-Electrotype Co Boston. 



F13 



PREFACE. 



The compiler of this small history of Boston Harbor and its Islands 
has endeavored to give a correct and faithful account of it. The infor- 
mation contained therein is collected from the most authentic sources, 
and can be relied on as being strictly correct and not embellished or 
exaggerated in the least. It is compiled from such authorities as 
Snow's, Drake's, and Shurtleflf's Histories of Boston, and from matter 
collected from the records in the possession of the New-England 
Historic, Genealogical Society. 

The author has spent all his leisure time, since he was old enough 
to handle the tiller, in yachting in our beautiful harbor; and cruising 
along the adjacent coast. Not a week passes in the summer season 
but that at least a day is spent down the harbor. During these trips 
much of the matter in this work has been collected that came under the 
author's own personal observation; and, if it proves interesting to the 
reader, he will feel amply compensated for the time and trouble spent 
in this undertaking. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



OF 



BOSTON HARBOR 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is a strange fact, but nevertheless true, that, of the thousands of 
people in Boston, many have never been down the harbor, and but very 
few indeed can give an intelligent answer to queries from strangers 
relating to their beautiful island-dotted harbor. This may be accounted 
for, from the fact, that, until quite recently, only one line of steamers 
stopping at Hull and Hingham was employed for carrying passengers. 
Previous to this, the only way to reach these places was by a few old 
fishing boats at Long Wharf that could be hired, and a few yachts 
owned'by private parties. 

Within the past few years, a wonderful change has taken place. 
Many beautiful steamboats traverse the harbor in every direction, touch- 
ing at the principal islands and beaches, and carrying crowds of plea- 
sure-seekers every pleasant day. Places that a short-time since showed 
no more signs of human habitation than the coast of Labrador, and 
seemingly as forsaken as when the white man first put his foot upon 
these shores, are now dotted with villas and hotels, and frequented dur- 
ing the summer months by thousands of visitors. 

During the past few years, the numbei of cottages, many of them 
almost palatial in their appointments, have rapidly increased. 

MAMMOTH HOTELS AND PAVILIONS 

have sprung up almost by magic, until the shore stretching away on 
either hand, might be mistaken for one of those beautiful Oriental 
Cities. This illusion is the more striking from the prevailing Eastern 



VI ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 

Style of architecture, and the dark-red covering that forms an important 
feature in the outer ornamentation of hundreds of structures. 

The time-honored, chaste, and beautiful white cottages with green 
bhnds, have given place to parti-colored effects, in which drabs and 
brown predominate below, while the upper portion is red and black. 

The great popularity that our sea-shore resorts enjoy is found for 
one reason in the superb steamboat accommodations, which are said by 
travelers to be unequaled. They are models of strength, speed, and 
beauty, noted for their cleanliness and comfort, each and every owner 
and officer vying with each other to offer to their patrons the neatest 
and best-appointed pleasure steamer in the country. 

THE HARBOR, 

with its wide expanse of smooth water, its scores of picturesque islands, 
and its countless objects of interest, many of them rich in historic inci- 
dents, forms an unceasing and alluring attraction, not alone to the resi- 
dents of our city and state, but to thousands of tourists, in whose esti- 
mation Boston's sea-shore attractions are unsurpassed in the country. 

In the wide range of charming resorts, at which days and weeks may 
be spent with unabated enjoyment, lies the secret of the world-wide 
popularity of Boston Harbor. 

On this coast, there is none that will equal it, in its picturesque 
effects. Its entrance is protected by the 

ROCK-BOUND BREWSTERS 

that break the ocean's swell, which continually thunders against its 
rocky barriers. Once inside its harbor, and it is as smooth as an in- 
land lake, and much less liable to sudden squalls and flaws of wind; 
its waters are broad and deep, studded with numerous islands, which 
afford excellent camping-ground for the summer excursionists, who for 
weeks at a time enjoy themselves in fishing, gunning, yachting, bathing, 
and worshiping nature in all its beauty. For yachting purposes, it is 
certainly unequaled anywhere. A portion of its broad water the 
yachtmen have all to themselves, and are not troubled with steamers, 
vessels, scows, and so forth, which is usually the case in all waters near 
large cities, the vessels passing in and out of the harbor confining 
themselves generally to the main ship-channel. 



OF BOSTON HARBOR 



YACHTING 



has also increased in the last few years, and now several yacht clubs are 
organized with hundreds of sail. They are to be seen in every direction 
on a fine day, presenting a beautiful appearance, with their snowy sails 
and graceful models. There is now but one thing wanted, and that is, 
a suitable hand-book of information, at a price within every one's 
means, that will give an accurate description of the harbor and islands, 
and all necessary information, together with suitable illustrations of the 
principal objects to be seen in a day's trip. In this little volume we 
will endeavor to meet this want, and state also the best routes to take, 
to enjoy 

A DAY DOWN THE HARBOR. 

where it can be spent to the best advantage, also the best places to 
camp, and to enjoy yachting, gunning, fishing, and so forth, where the 

BEST HOTELS 

are located, and how reached, what their facilities are, prices, etc. 

We will also lay out several excursion routes, giving a description of 
ever)1;hing seen on the way, illustrating the principal points of interest 
by finely executed engravings, from photographs and sketches, together 
with a map of the harbor accurately projected from charts of the United 
States Coast Survey, and which shows the harbor and islands, as they 
would appear from a lofty eminence, in such a manner that the reader 
can readily see and understand the form of the harbor, islands and pro- 
jecting points of the main land. The illustrations and map were made 
by the Photo-Electrotype Engr-Wing and Manufacturing Com- 
T.\^Y, of Boston, who are the publishers of this hand-book of informa- 
tion for summer pleasure-seekers in Boston Harbor. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



CHAPTER I. 

EXCURSION NO. I FROM ROWE's WHARF TO NANTASKET BEACH. — FORT 
POINT, AND THE OLD SCONCE BATTERY. — CHARLESTOWN, BUNKER- 
HILL MONUMENT, AND NAVY YARD. — DESCRIPTION OF EAST BOSTON, 
FORMERLY CALLED NODDLE'S ISLAND. — SOUTH BOSTON, FORMERLY 
CALLED MATTAPANNOCK.— WASHINGTON AT DORCHESTER HEIGHTS. 
— THE BRITISH ARE COMPELLED TO EVACUATE BOSTON. 

Having given a slight account of the points of interest in Boston Har- 
bor, we will now endeavor to describe the harbor, its islands, roads, 
channels, rocks, and spits. Instead of parading them in a tabular state- 
ment, in an alphabetical order, the plan will be pursued of laying out 
several routes to take to enjoy a day down the harbor, describing the 
various objects that may be seen on a day's excursion. 

EXCURSION NO. I. 

From Rowe's Wharf on Atlantic Avenue to Nantasket Beach. 

Rowe's Wharf, our starting-point, is situated on what was called in 
the olden time Fort Point, in consequence of the old fortification, which 
stood upon Fort Hill, just inland of it, and called the Old Sconce, or 
South Battery. This fort was the first erected in Boston, after its settle- 
ment, by order of Governor Winthrop. Both the fort and the hill have 
now disappeared. Starting from the wharf, the reader will soon find 
himself in the stream of the main ship-channel. The first thing that 
will attract his attention, looking toward the northwest, is Charlestown, 



2 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

on which may be perceived a tall granite shaft that marks the site of the 
Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Toward the water's edge, situated on the easterly end of Charlestown, 
will be perceived several large sheds, factories, and so forth, and men- 
of-war lying in the stream. This is the Charlestown Navy Yard. The 
point of land on which it is situated divides the Charles and Mystic 
Rivers, which here form a junction, and enter the harbor. Now, by 
looking to the northeast, another point of land will be observed, closely 
built over and surrounded by wharves and shipping, prominent among 
which will be observed the Cunard steamers, which can be recognized 
by their red funnels. This large island is known as East Boston, for- 
merly called Noddle's Island, and probably took its name from William 
Noddle, whom Governor Winthrop calls "an honest man of Salem," 
for he was here early enough to have given to the island the name 
which it bore in 1630, though Mr, Samuel Maverick appears to have been 
a resident on it some years previous to that time. 

As far back as 1 631, an order was passed by the Court of Assistants, 
restraining persons from putting cattle, felling wood, or taking slate from 
Noddle's Island; and again in 1632 it was ordered "That noe pson 
wtsoever shall shoote att fowle vpon Noddles Ileland but that the sd 
place shalbe for John Perkins to take fowle with netts." But on the 
first of April, 1633, the following sensible order was passed by the Court : 
"Noddle's Ileland is granted to Mr. Samll Mauack (Maverick) to enjoy 
to him & heires for ever Yielding & payeing yearly att the Genrall Court 
to the Gounr, for the time being either a fatt weather a fatt hog or xls 
in mon^y & shall giue leave to Boston & Charles Town to fetch wood 
contynually as their needs requires from the southerne pte of sd ileland.'' 

Either the island was extremely well wooded at the time the order 
was passed, or the towns of Boston and Charlestown were very sparse- 
ly inhabited. Nowadays very little wood except chips from the ship- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 3 

yards can be obtained from Noddle's Island, for the oldest inhabitant 
can only remember two trees growing upon the island previous to its 
purchase by the East Boston Co. in 1833. At that time the island did 
not contain one-tenth as many inhabitants as at the present time. 

Noddle's Island was "layed to Boston" on the 9th of March, 1636-7. 
It originally contained six hundred and sixty-three acres. Its nearest 
approach to Boston is over the ship-channel by ferry, and is connected 
with the main land by two bridges, and with Hog Island by another. 
The houses on this Island were destroyed during the siege of Boston, 
and were rebuilt shortly after from the old barracks used by Washing- 
ton's army at Cambridge. 

On looking to the Southward, a long neck of land will be obser\^ed, 
on which are numerous churches, manufactories, and public buildings; 
this is South Boston, and is the neck of land described in Roger Clap's 
narrative as " ye neck of land called by the Indians Mattapannock," on 
which the settlers turned their cattle to prevent their straying, for it is 
connected to the main land by a narrow strip of marsh which was easily 
fenced. South Boston was formerly a part of Dorchester; and the high 
land which can be distinguished by a large square white building on it, 
the " Blind Asylum," is what is known in history as Dorchester Heights. 
On the night of March 4, 1776, Washington took possession of these 
Heights, where earth-works were immediately thrown up, and in the 
morning the British found their enemy entrenched in a strong position 
both for offence and defence. A fortunate storm prevented the execu- 
tion of Gen. Howe's plan of dislodging the Americans, and by the 17th 
of March his position in Boston became so critical that an instant evac- 
uation of the town became imperatively necessary, for these Heights 
commanded the town. Before noon of that day, the whole British fleet 
was under sail, and Gen. Washington was marching triumphantly into 
Boston. The British fleet anchored down the harbor, where their move- 
ments will be noticed in other chapters. 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER II. 

BIRD-ISLAND SHOAL ONCE AN ISLAND AND PLACE OF EXECUTION FOR 
PIRATES. — WINTHROP'S OR GOVERNOR'S ISLAND IS GRANTED TO GOV. 
WINTHROP. — PECULIAR TERMS OF TENURE TO SAME. — PORTION OF 
THE ISLAND BOUGHT BY THE GOVERNMENT. — FORT WINTHROP BUILT. 
— DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT. 

The reader is now in a fair condition to proceed down the harbor. 
When we say down the harbor, we do not mean beyond the Boston out- 
er light. If we go beyond the light, we call it " going outside," which 
includes several shoals and sounds, and extends to the outermost 
rocks and ledges off the coast. Following the main ship-channel, and 
pursuing a southeasterly course from the starting-point, we leave Bird- 
Island Shoal to the left, which can be distinguished by a beacon on the 
easterly end. The shoal is composed of gravel and loose stones, and 
was formerly the site of an island, which was of some value, and con- 
tained a respectable marsh, which was mowed annually, which is con- 
firmed by the following record taken from the old town books March 
26, 1650 : "Thos. Munt hath liberty to mow the marsh at Bird Island 
this yeare." It is also said that it was sometimes used as a place of ex- 
ecution and burial of pirates in the olden time. The shoal, which makes 
quite a show at low water, is all that now remains of the island. At 
high water it is all covered. 

The next island to the southeast is Governor's, or, as it is sometimes 
called, Winthrop's Island, because the island was granted to Governor 
Winthrop very early by the Colonial Legislature. This noted island first 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 5 

took its name from Roger Conant, a distinguished early settler of Plym- 
outh. The first known of this island is that on July 2, 163 1, it was 
" appropriated to publique benefits and vses." But in the same month 
we are told the " Friendship *' set sail for Christopher's Island, and ran 
aground behind Conant's Island, which was hard treatment for " Friend- 
ship.*' On the 3d of April, 1632, at a Court of Assistants, "the island 
called Conant's island, with all the liberties & privileges of fishing and 
fowleing, was demised to John Winthrop Esq. the psent Gounr., and it 
was further agreed that the said John Winthrop did covenant and prmise 
to plant a vineyard and an orchyard in the same, and that the heirs or 
assigns of the said John Winthrop for one & twenty yeares payeing 
yearely to the Gounr. the fifth parts of all such fruits & proffiits as shalbe 
yearly raysed out of the same, and the lease to be renewed from time to 
time vnto the heirs & assigns of the said John Winthrop, & the name of 
the said ileland was changed & is to be called the Goun'rs Garden." 

It seems that the excellent Governor did not suffer the garden to go 
unimproved, though perhaps some of his modern successors would do 
so rather than keep a vineyard and provide fruit for the Legislature. It 
is surmised that the good old Puritan ancestors were not Prohibitionists, 
but had an eye to the wine vats when they looked out for the " fifth 
part" of the proceeds of the garden, as will be shown by the following 
record : — 

" Whereas the yearly rent of the Goun'rs Garden was the fifth pte of 
all the ffruict that shall growe there, it is ordered by their present Court, 
(att the request of John Winthrop Esq.), that the rent of the said ile- 
land shalbe a hogshead of the best wine that growe there to be paid 
yearly after the death of the said John Winthrop, and noething before. " 

It is to be feared that the vineyard failed, though the orchard flour- 
ished; for it appears that in 1640 a vote was passed by which John 
Winthrop and his heirs should pay only 2 bushels of apples each year, 



OK BOSTON HARBOR. 

one bushel to the Governor & another to the generall court in winter — 
the same to be the best apples there growing." The records show that 
in the fall of the same year that Mr. Winthrop senior paid in his bushel 
of apples to the General Court, and the other bushel to Thomas Dudley, 
his successor in office that year. It is supposed that the apples were 
faithfully paid in eveiy year, and that each of the members of the Gen- 
eral Court carried home his pockets full; for again in 1642 the following 
significant entry appears on the records : " The bushell of apple~> was 




FORT WINTHROP. 

paid in." How long this practice continued is not known; certainly it 
did not reach to modern times, for it would have been hard for some 
years past to find any apples except " apples, of the earth," with which 
to have fulfilled the contract. 

The island continued in the possession of the Winthrop family till 
1808, when a portion of it was sold to the Government for the purpose 
of erecting a fort, which, when built, was called Fort Warren, in respect 
to Gen. Joseph Warren. This name, however, has since been trans- 
ferred to another fort erected on George's Island; and the new fortific^'.- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 7 

tion now in process of erection on the summit cf the high hill on the 
island has been named Fort Winthrop, in remembrance of the first 
Governor to whom it was first granted. The fort which is now in pro- 
cess of construction is of great strength. It has a commanding position, 
and the batteries are nearly all underground, and connected with :he 
Citadel (the top of which can be seen on the highest part of the island) 
with underground passages, and the water battery that will be obser^-ed 
on the southerly side of the island is of great advantage to the defence, 
controlling as it does a large extent of flats which are very shoal except 
at the highest tides. Although the defences of this island do not show 
very much from the water front on account of their being underground, 
yet on this very account it will be almost impregnable when finished, 
and will be by far the strongest fortress in the harbor. 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER TIL 

ATTEMPT TO LOCATE A FORT IN THE HARBOR. — FORT AT CASTLE 
ISLAND UNDERTAKEN. — DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT BY CAPT. JOHN- 
STON AND CAPT. ROGER CLAP. — THE CASTLE ABANDONED. — ARRIVAL 
OF LA TOUR AND FRIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS. — CASTLE BURNT. — 
DESTROYED BY THE BRITISH. — REBUILT AND CALLED FORT INDE- 
PENDENCE. — EXECUTIONS THERE DURING THE REBELLION. 

Having passed Fort Winthrop by way of the main ship-channel, the 
next island we will notice will be Castle Island, which is directly oppo- 
site to Fort Winthrop to the southward, and can be easily recognized by 
the granite fortress and earthwork, it being one of the most prominent 
forts in Boston Harbor. Veiy soon after the settlement of Boston the 
civil authorities began to consider the question of erecting defences 
in the harbor, in addition to the fort on Fort Hill. The first place 
thought of was Hull, at the entrance to the harbor; and an expedition 
to the same is thus chronicled by Governor Winthrop in his valuable 
journal, February, 1632: — 

"The Governr & 4 of the Assistants, with 3 of the Ministrs & others, 
about 26 in all, went in 3 boats to view Nantaskott the wind W., faire 
weather; but the winde arose N, W. so strong & extreme colde, that they 
were kept there 2 nights, being forced to lodge vpon the ground, in an 
open cottage, vpon a little olde strawe, which they pulled from the 
thache. Their victualls allso grewe shorte, so they were forced to eat 
muskles, yet they were very weary, & came all safe home, the 3 days 
after, throughe the Lord's spec'lle providence. Vpon view of the place 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 9 

it was agreed by all that to build a fort there it would be too great charge 
& of little vse wherevpon the planting of that place was deferred." 

Not satisfied with the failure above recited, the same party that went 
to Nantasket made another attempt a year later, for Mr. Winthrop re- 
lates as follows : — 

" The Governr & Council, & divers of the jSIinrs, & others, met at Cas- 
tle Island, & there agreed vpon erecting 2 platformes &. one small forti- 




THE CASTLE, OR FORT INDEPENDENCE, 



fication to secure them bothe, & for the present furtherance of it they 
agreed to lay out 5 /i a man till a rate might be made at the Genii Court, 
The Deputye Roger Ludlowe was chosen overseer of the worke," 

To show its earnestness in this endeavor, the General Court passed a 
vote, "That the ffort att Castle Island, nowe begun shalbe fully pfcted, 
the ordinance mounted & eury other thing aboute it finished before any 
other fifortificacon be further proceeded in." 

Captain Edward Johnson of Woburn, in his " \Vonder-^Yorking Prov- 



lO OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

idence of Sion's Saviour,"' printed in 1654, speaks of the fort on Castle 
Island as follows : — 

" The Castle is built on the northeast of the Island, upon a rising hill, 
very advantageous to make many shot at such ships as shall offer to 
enter the harbor without their good leave and liking; the Commander 
of it is one Captain Davenport, a man approved for his faithfulness, and 
skill; the master cannoneer is an active engineer; also the castle hath 
cost about four thousand pounds, yet are not this poor pilgrim people 
weary of maintaining it in good repair, it is of very good use to awe any 
insolent persons, that putting confidence in their ships and sails, shall 
offer any injury to the people or contemn their government, and they 
have certain signals of alarums which suddenly spread through the 
whole country." 

Captain Roger Clap, who commanded the fort twenty-one years, 
gives the following description of the fort : — 

" I will inform you that God stirred up his poor servants to use means 
in the begining for their preservation; though a low and weak people, 
yet a willing people to lay out their estates for the defence of themselves 
and others, they having friends in divers places who thought it best for 
our safety to build a fort upon the island now called Castle Island; at 
first they built a castle with mud walls which stood divers years : First 
Capt Simkins was commander thereof, and after him, Lieut Morris, for a 
little space. When the mud walls failed, it was built again with pine 
trees and earth; and Capt Davenport was commander, when that decayed 
which was in a little time there was a small castle built with brick walls, 
and had three rooms in it; dwelling room below, lodging room over it, 
and the gun room over that, wherein stood six very good Saker Guns, 
and over it on the top three lesser guns. All the time of our weakness 
God was pleased to give us peace, until the wars with the Dutch in 
Charles II's time. At that time our works were very weak, and intelli- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



gence came to us that Durother, a Dutch commander of a squadron of 
ships, was in the West Indies, and did intend to visit us, whereupon our 
Battery also was repaired, wherein are seven good guns, but in ihe very 
lime of this report in July 1665, God was pleased to send a grevious 
storm of thunder & lightening, which did some hurt at Boston and 
struck dead here at Castle Island that worthy renowned Captain Richard 
Davenport; upon which the General Court in Aug. loth following ap 
pointed another (Roger Clap himself) Captain in room of him that was 
slain. But behold God wrought for us; Durother intended to come here 
yet God by contrary winds kept him out, so he went to Newfoundland 
and did great spoil there." 

During the administration of Lieu. Morris an affair took place which 
will clearly illustrate the manner of doing things in the olden time. 

"Three ships arrived here from Ipswich with three hundred and sixty 
passengers, the last being loath to come to anchor at Castle Island 
though hailed by the castle boat and required etc. The gunner made a 
shot before her for a warning, but the powder in the touchole being 
wet and the ship having fresh way with wind and tide, the shot took 
place in the shrouds and killed a passenger an honest man. The next 
day the governor charged an inquest, and sent them aboard with two of 
the magistrates to take view of the dead body, and who having all the 
evidence, found that he came to his death by the providence of God." 

This verdict of the jury of inquest undoubtedly gave great satisfaction 
to Lieu. Morris and his gunner, and to the staid townsmen of Boston, 
but proved of little account to the poor man who had lost his life, or to 
the fellow-passengers who had to be thankful that they had escaped a 
similar providence. 

The Castle at last went to decay, and was abandoned, but the inhabi- 
tants of Boston, as well as their Governors, were very much alarmed, 
for on the 4th of June, 1634, there arrived in the harbor a ship of 140 



12 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



tons, having on board the same number of persons. The Governor and 
his family were on their island when M. La Tour came up the harbor in 
his ship. The neighboring towns of Boston and Charlestown betook 
them to their arms, and three shallops with armed men went forth to 
meet the Governor, and to guard him to his house in town. The Gover- 
ernor in his journal says : — 

" But here the Lord gave us occasion to notice our weakness, for if 
La Tour had been illminded towards us, he had such an opportunity as 
we hope neither he nor any other shall ever have the like again; for 
coming to our castle and saluting it, there was none to answer him, for 
the last Court had given orders to have Castle Island deserted, a great 
part of the work being fallen down, &c. So he might have taken all the 
ordnance there, then having the Governor and his family, and Capt. 
Gibbon's wife etc in his power, he might have gone and spoiled Boston, 
and having so many men ready they might have taken two ships in the 
harbor and gone away without danger or resistance." 

This fright produced a good effect, for measures were immediately ta- 
ken for renewing the fortification on Castle Island. The towns in the 
vicinity of Boston were each assessed their portion toward defraying the 
expense of constructing the fort, and it was decided that the garrison 
should "consist of twenty men for the summer season, and ten for the 
winter. The captain to receive forty pounds for his house, and one 
hundred for the fort; and he was told as no constant minister could be 
expected, and as the Lord having furnished him with able gifts, he 
is to take care of the garrison as his own family and that only one half 
in turn can come up to town on the Lord's day and he himself every 
other Sunday, that he should have one third of the island for his own 
use, one tenth for his gunner, and the remainder for the garrison; that he 
shall send a boat to examine every ship that approachelh the town, that 
he could cut wood from any of the islands not disposed of, and that all 
trading vessels should come and depart unmolested.'' 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY I3 

About this time the armament and military property of the fort con- 
sisted of six murthers, two boats, a drum, two muskets, and a suitable 
number of pikes for each soldier. On March 21, 1672, the Castle, being 
chiefly built of wood, took fire, and was entirely destroyed. A new fort 
was built in 1674, which remained without much of any change till 1701, 
when the old works were demolished, and new ones, built of brick in a 
very substantial manner, were erected in their place, and over its en- 
trance was placed the following inscription : — 

" In the thirteenth year of the reign of William the Third, most invin- 
cible King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, this fortification was 
undertaken; and was finished in the second year of the reign of the 
most serene Ann, Queen of Great Britain, P'rance and Ireland, and in 
the year of our Lord 1703. Built by Col. William Wolfgang Romer, 
chief military engineer to their royal majesties in North America. '■ 

A portion of this instructive stone is in a good state of preservation, and 
a small portion of the old wall has been retained in constructing the 
rear portion of the present fort. Fort Indepencence; but, as it is covered 
wdth granite ashlers, it is hidden from sight. 

Wlien the British evacuated Boston, they destroyed Castle WilHam; 
and, after the provincial forces took possession, they repaired it, and its 
name was changed to Fort Independence in 1 797, President John Adams 
being present on the occasion. The Castle was noted for years as a 
duelling ground. A memorial of one of these unfortunate affairs can 
now be seen standing on the glacis of the fort, on which is the follow- 
ing inscription : — 

Near this spot 

on the 25th Dec. 1817 

fell 

Lieu. Robert F. Massie 

Aged 21 years. 



14 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

The Castle was used as a place of confinement for thieves and other 
convicts sentenced to hard labor, from 1 785 till the State's Prison in 
Charlestown was built in 1805. Within a few years a substantial stone 
fort has been erected in place of old Castle William. During our late 
civil war a number of prisoners were contined here, and several deser- 
ters were executed by being shot. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



CHAPTER IV. 

APPLE ISLAND. — USED AS A MARLNE RESIDENCE. — IS OWNED BY 
THOMAS HUTCHINSON, ESTES HATCH, JAMES MORTIMER, WILLIAM 
MARSH. — HOUSE BURNT IN 1 835. — THE ISLAND PURCHASED BY THE 
CITY. — FAVORITE RESORT FOR CAMPING PARTIES. 

Having passed Governor's Island and the Castle, Apple Island will 
be obser%'ed to the northeast of Governor's Island, about a mile distant. 
The island is round, gently rising from its shores to its centre, and has 
a considerable show of trees upon it, two of which have been the most 
prominent objects in the harbor for many years, attracting the eye in 
the daytime much more readily than the lighthouse on Long-Island 
Head. The flats that surround it are very extensive, and make its ap- 
proach at low tide very difficult. This small green spot in the harbor 
soon fell under the jurisdiction of Boston, and in the early days of the 
town it was used, as most of the other islands were, for pasturage of 
sheep and cattle; but in later times, having a richer soil, and being less 
exposed to the storms, than the other islands, it became desirable for a 
marine residence, and as such was improved previous to the war of the 
Revolution. From being the property of the town, Apple Island passed 
into private hands, and in 1723 was sold by Hon. Thomas Hutchinson 
to Mr. Estes Hatch, together with the housings, edifices, and buildings 
thereon, for the sum of ;i^200. The executor of Mr. Hatch sold it in 
1 750 to Mr. James Mortimer, of Boston, tallow-chandler, for the sum 
of ;(^I33. 6^. Sd. To give some idea of the island at the time of Mr. 



1 6 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

Mortimer's decease in 1773, the following extract is taken from his 
will : — 

Apple Island, so called, in Boston Harbor, and with the building there- 
on ;^200 

About ten tons of hay 15 

An old mare £(>, mare colt 2 years old ;^io 16 

A horse colt 10 weeks old , . 3 

A dray cart \os, a hand cart \os I 

A large boat and apparatus with cordage £^, a small do. 125. 6. \2s. 



£2^1. 12S. 



The island remained in the possession of the Mortimer family and 
their descendents for many years, till it finally descended to Mr. Robert 
Wilcox, living at North Shields, in Northumberlandshire, England, who 
knew but little about it, and probably placed but little value on it, and 
consequently suffered the house to decay, and the trees to waste. In 
this state of things this romantic spot was selected by an English gen- 
tleman by the name of William Marsh as a place of residence, and in 
the year 1814, at the close of the war, he placed his family there. After 
making the fields smile, and the gardens rejoice, the first object of Mr. 
Marsh was to find the legal owner of the island, that he might become 
the lawful possessor of what he deemed a modern Eden. In his search 
he was not successful till he had striven many years. About the year 
1822, however, he obtained possession of the knowledge of the person 
who appeared to be the owner, and he made with him an agreement 
by which he was to pay five hundred dollars for the island, and become 
the rightful owner of his much-desired residence. So careful And yet 
so scrupulously honest was he in this transaction, that he required the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 1 7 

legal proofs of the identity of Robert Wilcox, the reputec^ owner. This 
evidence he did not obtain till 1830, a few years before his decease, 
when the purchase money was paid, and the deeds passed and recorded. 

Mr. Marsh seems to have passed a happy and contented life on the 
island, secure from intrusion on account of its difficulty of approach, 
and enjoying the position on account of the fertility of the soil and its 
neighborhood to good fishing grounds and fields for sporting life. He 
died in 1833, ^^ ^^^ good old age of sixty-six, and was buried, at his 
own request, on the western slope of the hill upon his own beloved 
island, a large number of friends being present on the mournful occa- 
sion. Many persons will undoubtedly remember his faithful negro 
servant. Black Jack, who was so infamously treated by some of the navy 
officers stationed in the harbor, for assisting a man, as they alleged, to 
desert; and the successful endeavors of Samuel McCleary, who took 
charge of the case, and recovered for him damages for the abuse. 

Since the decease of Mr. Marsh, and the burning of the house, which 
occurred in 1835, the island has passed into other hands; and, after 
many years' neglect, the city purchased the island in 1867, paying 3,750 
dollars for it. It is not now put to any useful or remunerative purpose; 
but it is held solely for the prevention of the removal of the gravel and 
ballast stones which are found upon it. Occasionally an old hulk is 
broken up, and burned on the flats for the saving of the iron and cop- 
per used in its construction. 

There is no spot in the harbor which offers so strong an invitation for 
a delightful place as a marine rural residence during the sultry summer 
season. It is also an excellent place for camping parties and clam- 
bakes. Clams are found there in great abundance on the flats that sur- 
round the island. 



1 8 OF BOSTON H.\RBOR. 



CHAPTER V. 

president's road. — LOWER MIDDLE. — THOMPSON'S ISLAND. —STAND- 
ISH \TSITS THE ISLAND IN 1 62 1. — IS SETTLED BY DAVID THOMPSON 
IN 1626. — THE ISLAND IS GRANTED TO DORCHESTER. — CLAIMED 
BY JOHN THOMPSON IN 1648. — TESTIMONY OF THE SAGAMORE OF 
AGAWAM AND OTHERS. — THE ISLAND SOLD TO THE FARM-SCHOOL 
CORPORATION, AND ANNEXED TO BOSTON IN 1 834. 

Having now reached the entrance to the President's road, which was 
in olden time called King's road, exactly north of which is the Lower 
Middle, a gravelly, rocky shoal, which is sometimes, at very low water, 
exposed to view, directly toward the south will be observed Thompson's 
Island, which can be recognized by the Farm-School building, barn, 
wharf, orchard, and so forth. 

This is one of the best-cultivated and most fruitful islands in the har- 
bor, and one thing that distinguishes it from all others is the growth of 
trees which is now beginning to make quite a show on the island, and 
which all the other islands are so sadly deficient in. Thompson's Island 
is about one mile in length from northeast to southwest, and about a 
third of a mile in width, and contains about a hundred and forty acres 
of land suitable for agricultural purposes. It is about half a mile north of 
Squantum, a well-known promontory of North Quincy, the nearest point 
of the main land to the island. The surface is gently rising, forming 
two eminences, which are called East and West heads; and between 
these on the southeasterly side is a cove, and on the southwesterly side 
a salt-water pond of several acres, from which once flowed a creek that 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY I9 

in ancient times was dignified by the name of river. The creek has 
this year (1879) had a dike built across it, and the pond drained so as 
to make meadow-land of it, when it will yield bountiful crops from its 
rich alluvial soil. 

The bar which projects from the southern extreme of the island, about 
a quarter of a mile toward Squantum, has long been a noted locality, 
furnishing delicious clams, in greater profusion than any other place the 
writer has seen on the entire coast. The clams were considered of so 
much account by the inhabitants of Dorchester, that, when the island 
was set off by an act of the Legislature in 1834 from the town of Dor- 
chester to the city of Boston, it was enacted " that it should not destroy 
or affect any lawful right that the inhabitants of Dorchester might have 
of digging and taking clams on the banks of the said island,"' evidently 
showing that its flats had not lost their value in respect to the famous 
New-England shell-fish. 

This island was one of the first settled places in Boston Harbor. It 
was occupied by Mr. David Thompson some years previous to the set- 
tlement of Boston. He had been sent out in 1623, by Sir Fernando 
Gorges, to trade with the Indians at Piscataqua; but, being discontented, 
lie removed to Boston Harbor, and selected this island on account of its 
proximity to the Massachusetts Indians, whose principal village was sit- 
uated on the Neponset River, but a short distance from the island. 
This tribe was noted hunters, and the ponds and streams in the Blue 
Hills, flowing into the Neponset River, abounded with beaver, otter, 
mink, and other fur-bearing animals. Mr. Thompson erected a trading- 
post on the island, where he did a lucrative business with the Indians. 
He is supposed to have died on the island in 1628, leaving an only son, 
John, an infant, who inherited his estate, which also included Squantum. 
This island has always been private property since the time of the 
Thompsons, and used for purposes connected with agriculture; although 



20 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

after the settlement of Dorchester and Boston, it was granted by the 
General Court of the Colony to the town of Dorchester, in the following 
words, under date of 1634: "Thompson's Island is granted to the in- 
habitants of Dorchestr to enjoy to them and their heires & successors 
wch shall inhabite there foreuer payeing the yearely rent of xija' to the 
treasurer for the time being."" 

The town of Dorchester votea that a rent of twenty pounds a year 
should be charged for the Island, to be paid by the tenants toward the 
maintenance of a school in Dorchester; this rent " to bee payd to such 
schoolemaster as shall vundertake to teach English, Latine, and other 
tongues, and also writing." So it seems that the good people of Dor- 
chester early provided for schools where the really solid branches should 
be taught. The difficulty of collecting rent, however, induced the town 
to provide that there should be but ten tenants upon the island at one 
time. 

These halcyon days, however, did not last forever; for Mr. John 
Thompson, the son of David Thompson, made claim to it, and the town 
lost it, as will appear from the Colony records of May lo, 1648. "For- 
asmuch as it appears to this Corte, upon the petition of Mr. John 
Thompson, sonn & heir of David Thompson, deceased, that the said 
David, in or about the year 1 626, did take actuall possession of an iland 
in the Massachusetts Bay, called Thomson's Iland, & then being vacuum 
domicilium, & before the patent granted to us of the Massachusetts Bay 
& did erect there the form of an habitation, & dying soone after, leaving 
the petitioner an infant, who so soone as he came of age, did make his 
claim formally, & now againe by his said petition, this Corte, considring 
the premises, & not willing to deprive any of their lawful rights and 
possessions, or to prmit any piudice to come to the petionr in the 
time of his nonage, do hereby grant the said iland, called Thompson's 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 21 

Hand, to the said John Thompson & his heirs forever, to belong to this 
jurisdiction, & to be undr the govrnment & laws thereof." 

This was the first law-case of importance that occurred in the colony; 
and the town, not satisfied with the result of the petition, tried again to 
get the island restored by law, but failed in the attempt. When Mr. 
John Thompson made his defence against the renewed claim of the 
town to the island, m 1650, he brought in evidence certain affidavits of 
William Trevore, William Blackstone, Myles Standish, and the Saga- 
more of Agawam, all eminent persons in their way. These documents, 
copies of which are preserved, make it appear, that, early after the set- 
tlement of Plymouth, Captain Standish and others, among whom was 
William Trevore, a sailor, who came over in the " Mayflower " in 1620, 
visited Boston Harbor in September, 1621, and was one of the party that 
explored the harbor and interviewed the Indians, and at that time 
Trevore took possession of the island under the name of Island of 
Trevore, for Mr. David Thompson, then of London, and that Mr. 
Thompson obtained a grant of the island before the arrival of the 
Massachusetts Company. 

Mr. Blackstone, who was known as the first European resident 
in Boston, and whom Blackstone Street was named after, stated 
that he knew "ould Mr. Thompson;" that he affirmed that he "had a 
patten for it," and that there is a " harbour in the island for a boat, 
which none of the rest of the islands had." The Sagamore of Aga- 
wam testified as follows : " I Saggamore of Agamam testify that in the 
year 1619 or thereabouts, as I remember, I went in my own person, 
with Mr. David Thompson and he took possession of the Hand before 
Dorchester, he liking no other but that because of the smale Riuer, and 
then no Indians upon it or any wigwam or planting, nor hath been by 
any Endians inhabitted or claymed since, but two years ago by Harm- 
ben an old Endian of Dorchester." 



22 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

In 1834, the island was purchased by the Farm-School corporation, 
an institution incorporated in 1733 by the merchants of Boston for the 
purpose of founding a home for indigent boys of American parentage 
to teach them farming, and give them a good common-school educa- 
tion. In the same year it was set off, by an act of the Legislature, from 
the town of Dorchester, with which it had been connected for two hun- 
dred years, and annexed to Boston. This school is often mistaken for 
a reformatory institution, something after the style of the State Reform 
School at Westboro; but it is an entirely different institution, for 
the boys must be of good character in oi-der to be admitted here, and 
the school is supported by private enterprise, is now nearly self-sup^ 
porting, and is not a public institution. 




THOMPSON'S TRADING HOUSE. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY ^3 



CHAPTER VI. 

POSITION AND FORM OF SPECTACLE ISLAND. — SIZE OF THE ISLAND. — 
FORMERLY COVERED WITH WOOD. — LAID OUT FOR PLANTERS. — 
PURCHASED BY THOMAS BILL. — INDIAN CLAIM AND RELEASE IN 
1684. — IS USED FOR QUARANTINE. — FREQUENTED BY EXCURSION- 
[STS. — PRESENT USE OF THE ISLAND. 

Continuing our course down the President's road and looking in a 
southerly direction, the reader will come to a peculiarly shaped island 
called Spectacle Island, from its re-markable resemblance to a pair of 
spectacles; it being formed of two peninsulas connected together by a 
short bar which is covered with water at high tide. It lies between 
Thompson's and Long Island, and is south of the President's road. It 
is estimated to contain about sixty acres of land. The first mention of 
this noted locality in the records is in 1634, when, " together with 
Deer Island, Hog Island, and Long Island, it was granted to the town of 
Boston, for the yearly rent of four shillings, for the four islands," which 
may be called one shilling apiece for each of them. Very soon after it 
came into the possession of the town, it was allotted to the different in- 
habitants, who paid a small annual rent, to inure to the benefit of the 
free school. At this time the island was well covered with wood; for in 
January, 1687, about thirty persons of Boston went out on a fair day to 
Spectacle Island to cut wood, the town being in great want thereof. 
The next night the wind rose very high at the northeast, with snow, and 
afterward at the northwest, for two days, and it was so cold that the 
harbor froze over, except a small channel. These thirty adventurers 



24 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

nict with hard hick : for, of their number, twelve could get no farther 
home than Governor's Island. Seven were carried in the ice in a small 
skiff through Broad Sound, to the Brewsters, where they had to stay two 
days without food and lire, and get home by way of Pulling Point (Point 
Shirley); and many of the others, after detention, had their limbs 
frozen, and one died. 

In 1649, the town began to take measures for granting the land at the 
island to planters for perpetuity, reserving the exaction of a small an- 
nual rent of about sixpence an acre for the benefit of the free schools; 
and in April of that year, ten persons bound " themselves and their suc- 
cessors to pay sixpence an acre p yeare for their land at Spectacle iland, 
foreuer to ye use of the schole, yt soe it maye be proprietye to them 
for euer, and they are to bring in their pay to the townes treasurer the 
first day of February for eu or else their land is forfeit into the townes 
dispossing." These persons did not pay their rent as promptly as they 
should, and some of them conveyed their rights to others, insomuch 
that there were large arrearages due, and the treasurers were authorized 
to levey and collect by help of the constable. About ten years later, 
the town relinquished all its rights to the planters, and made void its 
agreement about its annual rent of a sixpence an acre for the benefit of 
the school, on condition that the back rent should be paid up in full to 
that date. This was undoubtedly done; for, just previous to this, Mr. 
Thomas Bill, a lighterman, began to buy up the rights of the several 
owners, and when he had nearly acquired the whole island he sold his 
thirty-five acres to his son Samuel Bill, a butcher, who had previously 
purchased five acres of Mr. John Slater (part of his inheritance from 
his father, William, a mariner), and also other parts of several persons. 
Thus he thought he became owner of the whole island; but here an 
Indian claim turned up, and had to be quieted. It appears that the new 



ILLUSTR-A.TED HISTORY 25 

claimant was Charles Josiah, the son of Wampatuck, late sachem of the 
Massachusetts, and grandson of Chickataubut. 

This distinguished individual says, in the deed of release, " for divers 
good causes and considerations me thereunto moving, & in particular for 
and in consideration of money to me in hand paid, before the unseal- 
ing of this deed, by Samuel Bill, of Boston, butcher, have with ye 
knowledge and consent of my wise men and councillors, Wm. Ahaton 
Senr, Wm. Ahaton Junr, & Robert Momentaug, given, granted, sold, 
enfeoffed and confirmed, one certain island scituate in the Massachu- 
setts Bay commonly known and called by the name of Spectacle Island, 
in the present possession of the same Bill," The Indian covenants in 
the deed " that (according to Indian right & title) he is the sole owner 
and proprietor of the sd island." At the decease of Samuel Bill, his 
property on the island consisted of house, seventy-six sheep, two cows, 
two negro men, a boat, one old mare, one hog, tools, and so forth. The 
whole amounting to ^^144, iSs. Sd. The island remained in the posses- 
sion of the Bill family till a portion of it, the southerly end, was sold to 
the Province in 1 71 7 for the sum of ;^ioo, in bills of credit, for the 
purpose of erecting a "Pest House there for the reception & entertain- 
ment of sick persons, coming from beyond the Sea, and in order to 
prevent the spreading of Infection." 

Things must have gone on slowly at the island; for in 1720 it was 
voted " that the selectmen of the town of Boston be desired to take care 
for the furnishing of the Public Hospital on Spectacle Island, so as to 
make it warm and comfortable for the entertainment of the sick." 

From this time things went along well till 1736, when the hospital 
was removed to Rainsford's Island, and Spectacle Island again reverted 
back to the Bill family, who retained possession of the island till 1741, 
when it was sold to Edward Bromfield, Esq.; and since then Spectacle 
Island has not been improved for public use, but has been used for the 



^° OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

purpose of agriculture and pasturage, and for a number of years the 
father of Mr. William Reed, now the proprietor of Squantum, kept a 
house of entertainment on the island for persons going on pleasure ex- 
cursions down the harbor, and many of the old yachtsmen will remem- 
ber the genial countenance of this pioneer in the hotel business in 
Boston Harbor. 

Of late years the island has been put to a new business, which speaks 
for itself if the reader happens to be to the leeward of it : "it resembles 
not the odors that are wafted on the summer breezes from the spice 
islands." A vessel named after its proprietor, the " Nahum Ward," plies 
between the city and the island, loaded with dead horses, which, when 
passed through certain processes of manipulation, yield a valuable re- 
turn, although the island, in consequence, has ceased to be a place of 
resort as formerly. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 27 



CHAPTER VII. 

LONG ISLAND, — ANCIENT DESCRIPTION, FORM. AND DIMENSIONS. — 
GR.A.NTED TO BOSTON IN 1 634, AND LAID OUT IN LOTS IN 164O. — 
CLAIM OF THE EARL OF STIRLING. — IN POSSESSION OF JOHN NEL- 
SON. — BOUGHT BY THE LONG-ISLAND COMPANY. — DESCRIPTION OF 
THE LIGHT-HOUSE, — REDOUBT BUILT THERE DURING THE REVOLU- 
TION, — PORTUGUESE VILLAGE OF FISHERMEN. — USED DURING THE 
REBELLION FOR A CONSCRIPT CAMP. — ITS PRESENT CONDITION AND 
FUTURE PROSPECTS. 

The next island to the eastward of Spectacle Island is Long Island, 
so called from its extreme length, which is greater than that of any 
other island in the harbor. It is about a mile and three-quarters in 
length from northeast to southwest, and about a quarter of a mile wide. 
It can be readily distinguished, on passing it, by the large hotel situated 
in nearly the centre of the island, and known as the Long-Island House, 
surrounded by well-kept grounds, on which are a number of fine trees, 
which are so scarce on all the islands in the harbor. 

The following account, written in 1635 by Mr, William Wood in his 
" New-England Prospect," hardly seems to apply at the present day : — 

'* These lies abound with Woods, and Water, and Meadow-ground ; 
and whatsoever the spacious fertile Maine affords. The inhabitants 
use to put their Cattle, in these for safety viz their Rammes, Goates, 
and Swine, when their Come is on the ground." 

The history of this island bears a strong resemblance to that of many 
others in the harbor. It was granted to Boston, together with Deer 



2S OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

Island and Hog Island, in April, 1634, for the annual rent of two 
poundb for the three. Very soon after the acquirement of the island, 
the town of Boston began to apportion it out to various persons for im- 
provement; and the felling of the trees, with which it was well wooded 
on the arrival of the first settlers of the town, took place in real earnest, 
and it was not long before it was so divested of its forests as to become 
only fit for the pasturage of cattle, sheep, and sx^ine. 

In February, 1639, at a town meeting, it was directed that the island 
should be laid out into lots for planters, the record of which is to be 
found in the first volume of the town records, on the fortieth page, and 
reads as follows : — 

" At this meeting o"r brother Edward Rainsford & Willyam Hudson 
are appointed to accompany ye surveyor to lay out the planting ground 
at Long Hand & they are to beginne at the east end; & if any have be- 
stowed any labor vpon yt wch shall fall to another man, he who shall 
enjoy ye benefitt thereof shall eyther allow for ye charge, or cleare so 
much for ye other." 

Here we find an early practical application of the principle of the 
betterment law, with a view of fair treatment of pre-occupants and 
squatters. The affairs were managed on this island precisely the same 
as on Spectacle Island; the town relinquishing the island to the plant, 
ers, they to pay a yearly rent to be applied to the benefit of the free 
schools. The planters not paying, the constable was sent to them to 
distrain for the rent. Failing in this, the island was sold, and passed 
into private hands, free of all encumbrances. 

Most of the islands in the harbor had at some period of their history 
claimants in the shape of Indians; but Long Island was claimed by no 
less a dignitary than the Right Honorable William, Earl of Sterling, 
who in 1 64 1 recorded a protest by his agent, James Forrett, against Ed- 
ward TomHns and others as intruders on Long Island. This claim was 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



29 



not sustained, and the title proved good to the grantees from the 
town. 

In course of time, the title became vested, by purchase of the renters, 
in Mr. John Nelson of Boston, the heroic person who in 1689, at the 
head of the soldiery, made Sir Edmund Andros surrender himself and 
the fort on Fort Hill to the incensed colonists whose rights he was then 
usurping. Mr. Nelson was a patriot of considerable note in his day. 
He was a near relative to Sir Thomas Temple, who figured quite promi- 
nently this side of the Atlantic in colony times. 




FISHERMEN S HOUSES, LONG ISLAND. 

The island passed through various hands till 1847. Then the Long- 
Island Company bought all the island except the East Head, built a 
substantial wharf, and erected the Long-Island House, laid out streets, 
and cut the land up into building-lots, and started a real-estate specula- 
tion on the island, which, however, did not succeed, for but a few 
buildings were erected. 



30 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



In 1819 a lighthouse was erected on the East Head. Its tower is 
twenty-two feet in height, and is built of iron, painted white, with a 
black lantern containing nine burners, and is about eighty feet above 
the level of the sea, and shows a white fixed light that can be seen on a 
clear night about fifteen miles. It has for its object the guidance of 
vessels up the roads of the harbor. It is situated in a square enclosure 
of ground on the summit of the Head. Within the square is a comfort- 
able stone house for the keeper, and a remarkably good well of water. 




LONG-ISLAND LIGHJ 



Near the lighthouse was the redoubt erected by Washington's army du- 
ring the Revolutionary War for the purpose of driving the British fleet 
out of the harbor, where they remained after the evacuation of Boston. 
The redoubt was destroyed a few years ago to make place for the more 
extensive fortification now in process of construction on the summit of 
the Head. 
The prospect from this Head is surpassed by none that can be ob- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 3! 

tained from any of the eminences upon the other islands in the harbor. 
The head was fast disappearing from the effects of storms and currents 
till recently, when the U. S. Government erected a substantial sea-wall 
around it, thus protecting it from the encroachments of the sea. 

On the southeasterly side of the island is a cove which is used as a 
harbor by the fishermen for their small boats. It is protected from the 
rough water by a projecting beach, which is fast being washed away. 
Near this small harbor is quite a fishing village inhabited mostly by 
Portuguese, who have superseded the native American fishermen on ac- 
count of their cheap way of living, which is a very similar case to that 
of the Chinese on the Pacific coast. 

The fishing is now done to a great extent all along the New-England 
coast by Portuguese; not that they are any better fishermen or as good 
as the native American, but on account of their working cheaper. Ex- 
cursionists can go ashore here and purchase fresh boiled lobsters at 
an exceedingly- low price. 

Long Island is one of the pleasantest islands in the harbor for sum- 
mer residences, and will in time probably prove a desirable resort for 
such purposes, unless the city takes possession of the island, and re- 
moves the various city institutions to it, which may be the case in the 
course of time, as the matter is now under consideration. 

During the Rebellion the island was used as a conscript camp, and 
rendezvous for Massachusetts soldiers previous to their being mustered 
into the service of the United States. 

During the last century the island was used for farming purposes, and 
families resided upon- it; but lately it has been put to but little use ex- 
cept for pasturage. 



32 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DEER ISLAND. — ITS SIZE, HILLS, BLUFFS, AND PONDS. — ORIGIN OF ITS 
NAME. — IT SUPPLIES FIREWOOD TO THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON. 
— USED AS A PRISON FOR SWINE AND GOATS. — JOHN RUGGLES 
BUILDS ON THE ISLAND. — LEASED TO SIR THOMAS TEMPLE. — DE- 
STRUCTION OF ALL THE FOREST ON THE ISLAND. — THE SACHEM 
WAMPATUCK AND OTHER INDIANS CLAIM THE ISLAND. — SIR ED- 
MUND ANDROS ATTEMPTS TO TAKE POSSESSION OF THE ISLAND. — 
IS NOW USED FOR THE CITY INSTITUTIONS. 

Deer Island lies directly north of the East Head of Long Island, be- 
tween which is the main ship-channel. It is separated from the town 
of Winthrop by Shirley Gut, a passage the narrowest part of which meas- 
ures about three hundred and twenty-five feet. The island is nearly a 
mile in width, and contains about one hundred and thirty-four acres of 
upland and fifty acres of marsh, making one hundred and eighty-four 
acres in all. Besides a large amount of flats more than equal to all the 
upland and marsh, it has two hills and four bluffs which are known by 
the names of North Head, East Head, and South Head (or Money 
Head), Graveyard Bluff (a small projection on the southwesterly part 
of the island), and Signal Hill in the central part of the island. The 
South Head took the name of Money Head in consequence of the 
money-digging affair that occurred there some years ago. North and 
south of Signal Hill are two small fresh- water ponds; the northerly 
known as Ice Pond, and the southerly as Cow Pond, — the former gen- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 

erally supplying the occupants of the island with ice for the summer 
months, and the latter affording refreshing water for the cattle. 

Deer Island took its name from the fact that deer formerly visited and 
occupied its ancient groves, which have long since been cut down for 
fuel and lumber. Mr. William Wood, in his "New-England Prospect," 
printed in 1634, says, — 

"The chiefe Islands which keep out the Winde and Sea from disturb- 
ing the Harbours, are first Deare Hand, which lies within a flight-shot 
of Pulling point. This Hand is so called, because of the Deare which 
often swimme thither from the Maine, when they are chased by the 
Woolves : Some have killed sixteene Deare in a day upon this Hand. 
The opposite shore is called Pulling point, because that is the usuall 
Channel Boats use to passe thorow into the Bay; and the Tyde being 
very strong, they are constrayned to goe a-shore, and hale their Boats 
by the seasing, or roades, whereupon, it was called Pulling point." 

What was known formerly as " Pulling Point " is now called Point 
Shirley, on which is built the Point-Shirley House, commonly known as 
Taft's, and celebrated for the game dinners served there. 

In 1634, this island, together with Long Island and Hog Island, were 
granted in perpetuity to Boston for the nominal rent of two pounds; 
and this amount Avas reduced to four shillings, and Spectacle Island 
thrown in beside, and the original grant was confirmed by the Colonial 
Legislature. Then terminated all the right of the colony to the island, 
and the Province and Commonwealth has never set up any claim since 
to its territory, but the ownership has remained vested in the town and 
city of Boston. 

At this time the island appears to have been of no special use to the 
inhabitants except to procure fire-A\ood from; for an order was passed 
in 1636, as follows : — 

" Also it is agreed yt ye Inhabitants who doe want wood, shall have 



34 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



liberty to gett for their vse at Deare Island, so as yt they psently take 
& carrye away what they doe gett, & whatsoeuer they have felled there 
to be at liberty for others to take away." 

If they had known the mischief that would ensue from this order, it 
is very questionable whether they would have passed it; for now it is 
with the greatest difticulty that trees can be made to grow upon the 
island, on account of the easterly sea-winds which are so unpropitious 




POINT SHIRLEY. 



to their cultivation. A few \villows and silver-leaf poplars of quite re- 
cent planting are now the only trees on the island. 

In 1641, an order was passed by the town, authorizing that trespass- 
ing swine which should be suffered to roam about the town insufficiently 
yoked, and goats found without a keeper, should be sentenced to Deer 
Island for a time. Now a different kind of trespassers are sent there, 
that have proved to be of more trouble to the city than the swine and 
goats, inasmuch as they have transgressed the laws knowingly. John 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 35 

Ruggles then put up a building on the island to be used as a pound for 
swine and goats, for Avhich he received the sum of/";, 15^. 6^. 

An order was passed in 1644, to lease the island to James Penn and 
John Oliver for three years, at the rate of seven pounds a year. The 
income of the island was applied to school purposes. The inhabitants 
of the town were still granted the privilege of cutting wood on the isl- 
and, provided that they carried it off, or set it on heaps, " that it might 
not be spoyled, nor hinder the feed of cattell." 

Mr. Edwai-d Bendall next leased it for a term of twenty-one years, he 
to leave at the end of his term a supply of wood for the maintenance 
of one family forever, and also fruit trees he should plant there; but, as 
Mr. Bendall did not pay his rent there, the constable was sent to dis- 
train for the rent, and a month later Mr. James Bill was debarred from 
cutting any more wood there, as there only remained enough for a 
farm. 

The constable seems to have had lively times among the inhabitants 
of the different islands; for none of them seem to have been able to pay 
their rent. 

In 1662, Sir Thomas Temple leased the island for thirty-one years, at 
the rate of fourteen pounds a year, to be applied to school purposes; 
and he is allowed " to clear the swamp on the said island of all timber 
trees whatever, and allsoe what other woode is vpon the said island, ex- 
cepting some timber trees," and so, probably, came to an end all the 
trees which formerly grew upon the island. 

About this time several of the Massachusetts Indians laid claim to 
Deer Island. This claim was met with in a conciliatory manner by the 
townsmen of Boston, who appointed a person to arrange with the In- 
dians, and purchase their claim. Wampatuck and three other Indians 
executed a quit-claim to the selectmen of the town of the property 
claimed, acknowledging that his grandfather, Chickataubut, had abouf 



36 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

fifty-five years previous sold the the island to English planters and set- 
tlers. At the same time, David, son and heir of Sagamore George, 
relinquished the right which he claimed to Deer Island. At this time 
Mr. Samuel Shrimpton, an extensive land owner, had become possessed 
of Sir Thomas Temple's lease. The town renewed the lease for i8 
years on the same terms, he having paid ^^19 to the sachem and other 
Indians for ratifying the ancient grant of Chickataubut. 

Not long after this, the intolerant and troublesome Sir Edmund 
Andros, who unrightfully held the position of Governor of New Eng- 
land, caused writs to be issued against the tenant, which the town de- 
termined to resist; and, finally, the usurper was seized and imprisoned. 
But fortunately, the revolution occurring in England, the whole matter 
ceased, and the town and its tenant were left in quiet possession of the 
island, which the town has continued to hold, without further hindrance, 
until the present time. 

The island is now used by the city as a place for its institutions, such 
as the House of Industry, which was removed from South Boston in 
1S48, and the House of Reformation and Aims-House, which were re- 
moved from the same place in 1858. The large brick building which 
forms one of the principal land-marks in the harbor was built in 1850. 
In 1869, a building for a farm-house, and another for pauper girls, 
were erected. 

A considerable portion of the easterly shore of this island having 
been washed away in storms, a sea-wall has been erected there for its 
better protection, and that of the harbor, which is much injured by the 
washings from the bluffs of this and oiher islands. So great is the wear 
from the headlands of Deer Island, that quite an extensive bar has been 
cieated by the above-named cause, extending a considerable distance 
from its northerly point toward Gut Plain upon Point Shirley, and 
another called Fawn Bar, from its easterly head toward the ledge of 
rock known as the Graves, in an easterlv direction. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



37 



CHAPTER IX. 

nix's mate, formerly an island. — GRANTED TO CAPTAIN JOHN 
GALLOP. — FORM AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE MONUMENT. — ORIGIN 
OF ITS NAME, — A PLACE OF EXECUTION FOR PIRATES. — EXECUTION 
OF WILLIAM FLY AND OTHERS. — GALLOP'S ISLAND. — GRANTED TO 
JOHN GALLOP. — PURCHASED BY THE CITY OF BOSTON. — FAMOUS 
PLACE FOR PLEASURE PARTIES. — OLD JOE SNOW. — RENDEZVOUS FOR 
SOLDIERS DURING THE CIVIL WAR. — USED FOR QUARANTINE. 



After passing Long-Island light, and the beacon on the southerly 
end of Deer Island, the reader will come in sight of a peculiarly shaped 
monument, a tall pyramid upon a square stone base, the whole about 
thirty-two feet in height, and resting on what, at low tide, appears to be 
an extensive shoal covered with stones of a suitable size for ballast for 
vessels. This shoal, of about an acre 
in extent, is what remains of a once 
respectable island, as far as size is 
concerned; as may be seen by the fol- 
lowing record made in 1636 : — 

" There is twelve acres of land 
granted to John Gallop, upon Nixes 
Hand, to enjoy to him & his heirs for 
ever, if the iland be so much." 

There was once enough land on this island to answer for pasturage 
ground; and less than a hundred years back, the island was used for 
the purpose of grazing sheep. William Gallop was a noted pilot in his 




NIX S MATE. 



3S 



OF BOSTON IL\RBOR. 



day, and was better acquainted with the harbor than any other man of 
his time. To his ability as a pilot and fisherman he added thai of a 
good fighter; for on one occasion, when on a trading voyage to Block 
island, that lies off the coast of Rhode Island, he and his two young 
sons and boatman heroicically fought fourteen Indians on board a boat 
they had captured belonging to John Oldham of Boston, whom the In- 
dians had killed. Gallop and his party killed all the Indians but one, 
whom he brought with him to Boston. 

There is a story connected with this island, that the mate of a certain 
Captain Nix was executed upon it for the killing of his master; and that 
he, to the time of his death, insisted upon his innocence, and told the 
hangman, that, in proof of it, the island would be washed away. 

The island was used for many years for the execution and burial of 
pirates, and an account of a case which happened many years ago may 
not be out of place in this connection. It is thus given in the Boston 
News Letter, published July 14, 1726: — 

" On Tuesday the twelfth instant, about 3 P. M., were executed here 
for Piracy. Murder, &c., three of the condemned Persons mentioned in 
our last, viz., William Fly, Capt., Samuel Cole, Quartermaster, and Hen- 
ry Greenville; the other viz. Gorge Condick, was Repreaved at the place 
of execution for a Twelve Month and a day, and is to be recommended 
to His Majesty's Grace and Favor. Fly behaved himself very unbecom- 
ing even to the last; however advised Masters of Vessels not to be se- 
vere and Barbarous to their Men, which might be a reason why so many 
turned Pirates; the other Two seem'd Penitent, beg'd that others might 
be warned by 'em. Their Bodies were carried in a Boat to a small 
Island call'd Nicks's-Mate, about 2 Leagues from the Town, where the 
abovesaid Fly was hung up in Irons, as a Spectacle for the Warning of 
others, especially Sea faring Men; the other Two were buried there." 
The infamous notoriety which this island bore was equally shared in 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



39 



by other localities. Bird Island, the flats at the entrance of the Charles 
River, the Common, and the Neck are frequently alluded to as the 
places of execution and burial of criminals. John Quelch and his six 
companions in piracy were hung on June 13, 1704; Thomas Hawkins, 
a young man of the most respectable connections in the province, was 
executed, with his nine associates, Jan. 27, 16S9. Samuel Bellamy and 
his six pirates paid their forfeit in May, 171 7; and Archer and White 
were gibbeted on an island June 2, 1724, for piracy. Probably most of 
these pirates met their fate on this island, as it was the principal place 
in the harbor for the execution of pirates. 

Southeast of Nix's ]Mate is Gallop's Island, which takes its name from 
Captain John Gallop, who was the first owner of the island, and also the 
proprietor of Nix's Mate; and at his death, in January, 1649, was valued 
at ;£is, and was estimated to contain sixteen acres, and was at a very 
early date under the jurisdiction of the town of Hull. The easterly part 
of the island is formed into a low Beachy Point, so called, being com- 
posed chiefly of small stones and gravel. This has always been noted 
as one of the most fertile of the islands in the harbor, and has from 
time immemorial been cultivated as a farm, in the days of the old quar- 
antine regulations, the occupants supplying the vessels in the Hospital 
Roads with vegetables and milk, and pure water from a never-failing 
spring. 

On the north side is a very abrupt and high bluff, surrounded by a 
sea wall. Upon the top of the bluff earth-works were thrown up during 
the Revolution for defensive purposes, which added to the discomfiture 
of the British after the evacuation of Boston. 

In April, 181 2, Mr. Caleb Rice of Hingham sold the island to Lemuel 
Brackett of Quincy for the sum of $1,630; in 18 19, Peter Newcomb, the 
then tenant of the island, bought it for $1,815, and it was frequently 
called Newcomb's Island. Mr. Newcomb died in April, 1S33, and was 



40 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

buried at Hull. The island was then occupied by the well-known " Joe 
Snow,"' and became a famous resort for pleasure parties, and his name 
will long be remembered by the numerous persons who have partaken 
of his good cheer and remarkable style of his hospitality. 

Soon after the breaking-out of the Rebellion, the island was lent to 
the Government by the City of Boston, which purchased it in i860 of 
Charles Newcomb for 1^6,500, and it was used as a rendezvous for en- 
listed soldiers, its green hill being covered with tents and barracks, 
and its turf trodden down, and its pleasant appearance almost blotted 
out. At the close of the war, the establishment at Gallop's Island be- 
came unnecessary, and the island was deserted by the soldiery, and the 
barracks consequently vacated, and the buildings turned over to the 
city, and the island was annexed to the quarantine establishment of the 
city, in view of the danger of a threatening infectious disease, which 
would require more than ordinary quarantine accommodation, and which 
fortunately was never put into use by the advent of the much-dreaded 
disease. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 4^ 



CHAPTER X. 



LOVELL'S ISLAND. — ITS POSITION, FORM, AND SIZE.— THE GREAT ROCK 
AND ITS SAD HISTORY. —THE ISLAND GRANTED TO CHARLESTOWN IN 
1636.— SOLD TO BOSTON IN 1 782. — WRECK OF THE " MAGNIFIQUE." 
— THE MAN-OF-WAR " AMERICA." — GEORGE'S ISLAND FORMERLY 
PEMBLRTON'S island.— BOUGHT BY BOSTON AND CONVEYED TO THE 
L-NITED STATES. — DESCRIPTION OF FORT WARREN. — CONFINEMENT 
OF MASON AND SEIDELL IN SAME. — REBEL PRISONERS CONFINED 
THERE DURING THE REBELLION. 

Northeast of Gallop's Island is situated Lovell's Island, which is about 
a "third of a mile in width, and three-quarters of a mile in length. On 
the northerly point a sea-wall has been erected to prevent the washing 
away of this exposed part of the island. It contains one hill, with 
marshes to the north, east, and south, and several salt-water ponds. On 
the tx)p of the hill may be seen, as the reader passes by the island, a 
large boulder, that has served for many generations as a comfortable 
cooking place. About fifty years ago, in mid-winter, in the dead of 
night, a coaster from Maine struck on Ram's Head, a shoal on its 
northerly point, causing immediate shipwreck; and, although the pas- 
sengers, fifteen in number, succeeded in landing safely, and procuring 
shelter under the lee of the great rock, they all froze to death before 
morning, it being one of the coldest nights of the year, the thermome- 
ter being below zero. On the morning succeeding this dreadful event, 
the bodies were found closely huddled together in the eternal sleep of 
death. Two young persons, who were about to be married, and who 



42 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

were coming to Boston to make marriage purchases, were found dead 
beside the rock, locked in each others' arms. Few in their hilarious 
moments, under this friendly boulder, little dream of the agony of that 
awful night. 

This island undoubtedly took its name from Captain William Lovell, 
who was of Dorchester in 1630. The first record to be found concern- 
ing the island is of October, 1636, in which the following record ap- 
pears : — 

" Lovel's Hand is granted to Charlestown provided they employ it for 
fishing by their own townsmen, or hinder not others." 

Any one seeing the island now would hardly expect to fiind the fol- 
lowing on the records : — 

"The Hand called LovePs Hand is given unto the inhabitants of 
Charles Towne & their heires and successors forever, pvided, that halfe 
of the timber & fire woode shall belong to the garrison at the Castle, to 
be impved wholly there." 

There may be some person living that can remember the large tree 
that formerly stood at the south point of the island, as it was a mark 
used by all the pilots in the olden time in guiding them up the harbor. 
Similar trees, which have likewise disappeared, were preserved upon 
nearly all the islands for the same purpose. 

In 1767, Charlestown sold the island "to Elisha Leavitt, of Hing- 
ham, for £2.^^ \y. 4,;/., together with the dwelling-house and fences, 
etc." Mr. Leavitt left it in 1790 to his grandson, Caleb Rice; and from 
him it passed into the possession of the City of Boston in 1825, together 
with George's Island, both for the sum of ^6,000; and the city conveyed 
it immediately to the Government for the same amount of money. 

In 1782, a most unfortunate shipwreck occurred on this island. 

Boston Harbor was frequented during the Revolutionary War by the 
naval forces of France, the ally of the Americans, for supplies and re- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 43 

pairs. The Count D' Estaing was here in the fall of 1778; and apart 
of the fieet of the Count de Grasse, who landed Lafyette and the French 
army at Yorktown, came here in 1782, just after his unfortunate and un- 
successful attempt in the West Indies, where he was so completely and 
dreadfully defeated by the British. Admiral Vanbaird, with fourteen 
sail of this fleet, arrived in Boston Harbor August 11, 1782, being a divi- 
sion of the unfortunate fleet of the Count that escaped. 

On entering the harbor through the Narrows, the pilot conducted the 
flag-ship, the " Magnifique," — as its name implied, a magnificent 
French seventy-four, — against the bar on Lovell's Island, and there it 
sank, and there its skeleton lies at the present day, imbedded in the 
sand. 

Several attempts have been made to obtain treasure from this v.-reck, 
but they have not proved in any degree remunerative. One attempt, 
made about forty years ago, gave no return except specimens of very 
beautiful wood, of which the vessel was built. In July, 1S59, another 
trial was equally unsuccessful, except in producing considerable quanti- 
ties of copper, lead, and cannon-shot. 

The French fleet left the harbor, and the pilot was transferred " up 
town •' to become a sexton and undertaker, he having served a sufficient 
apprenticeship in burying; and it was no uncommon thing to find on a 
Sunday morning, chalked on the meeting-house door of the New North 
Church, the following inscription : — 

" DonH run this ship ashore, 
As you did the seventy-four. '''' 

The loss of this French man-of-war was a serious matter for young 
America. Congress built a seventy-four-gun ship called the " America " 
at Portsmouth, the first line-of-battle ship ever built in America, and 



44 



OF BOSTON IIARBOR. 



the command awarded to Commodore Paul Jcnes. This vessel was 
presented Louis XVI. to replace the lost "Magnihque." But it came 
finally to a poor market; for it was captured from the French by the 
English, and became a part of the great English navy. 

The bar on the extreme westerly end of the island is called Man-of 
war Bar, on account of the Lj<> of thi^ \c>-el. an 1 *he ^^and and gravel 




FORT WARREX. 



has collected to such an extent around the wreck that a large portion of 
it has been converted into solid land, and the part in which the main 
part of the wreck of the ship is buried is now never overflowed at high 
water by ordinary tides. 

During the operation of widening the main ship-channel on the south- 
west portion of the island in 1868, large pieces of planks and portions 
of massive oak timbers were struck at depths of twenty-one to twenty- 
five feet, and brought up by the machine; these were evidently frag- 
ments of the old seventy-four. 

South of Lovell's Island lies George's Island, on which Fort Warren 
is tituated. This island was early in the possession of Jajr.es Pemberton 



ILLUSTR.\TED HISTORY 45 

of Hull, and called Pemberton's Island. It passed through various 
hands till it came into the possession of Caleb Rice, who sold it in 1825 
to the City of Boston, when it was transferred to the United States. 
This island contains thirty-five acres, and the side exposed to the sea 
has been protected by a sea-wall, and a very strong fort named Fort 
Warren has been erected on it. Its walls are constructed of Quincy 
granite, nicely hammered, and the interior material for the foundation 
is composed of Cape-Ann granite. Over the entrance is the following 

inscription : " Fort Warren, i8^oP 

This is not the first attempt at fortifying George's Island. In the 
autumn of the year of 1778, while the vessels of the Count D'Estaing 
were riding at Nantasket Roads, an earth-work was thrown up on the 
eastern side of the island, for the protection of vessels passing into the 
harbor against any attacks of the English cruisers which v/ere then 
cruising in these waters. 

At the early part of the war, the fort was used for rendezvous pur- 
poses, and some of the best regiments recruited in Massachusetts were 
thoroughly drilled within its walls before being sent into the field where 
they performed such distinguished service. 

Mason and Slidell, the two Confederate commissioners, that were sent 
by the Confederate Government to represent the Southern Confederacy 
in England and France, and were taken out of the British mail steamer 
"Trent" by Capt».ln Wilkes of the " San Jacinto," while en route from 
Havana to England, and which nearly embroiled this country in a war 
M'ith England, were confined in Fort Warren until given up to the 
English Government. 

During the war it was used as a prison for rebels. Only the most 
desperate, however, such as guerillas, and some of the most noted 
officers, whom the Government intended to keep during the war, and 
not exchange, were kept here; for the fort was too far from the seat of 
war to keep such prisoners as were intended to be quickly exchanged. 



^^ OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER XI. 

BUG LIGHT. — DESCRIPTION OF SAME. — RAINSFORD ISLAND. — ITS 
EARLY HISTORY. — REMOVAL OF THE QUARANTINE FROM SPECTACLE 
ISLAND TO RAINSFORD ISLAND. — LOCATION OF HOSPITALS. — OLD 
BURYING GROUND. — THE ISLAND NOW USED BY THE PAUPERS. — 
PETTICK'S ISLAND. — ITS FORM AND SIZE. — CREW OF A FRENCH 
TRADING-VESSEL MASSACRED THERE BY THE INDIANS. — THE VESSEL 
BURNT AND SOME OF THE CREW CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY. — GREAT 
MORTALITY AMONG THE INDIANS SHORTLY AFTER. 

After passing Fort Warren, an odd-looking structure will be seen to 
the northeast of it, and known as the Bug Light. It is on the extreme 
end of the spit or sand-bar stretching away from the Great Brewster, 
and is set up on iron stilts, presenting a very peculiar appearance. It 
has a fixed red light, and can be seen in pleasant weather about seven 
miles. The structure is painted of a dark red color, and its lantern is 
about thirty-five feet above the level of the sea. It was built in 1S56, 
and is intended, ^\•hen in range with Long-Island Light, to lead the 
mariner clear of Harding's Ledge, a most dangerous reef of rocks about 
two miles out at sea. 

Southeast of Fort Warren lies Rainsford's Island, sometimes called 
Hospital or Quarantine Island. It is about half a mile in length from 
east to west, and very narrow for its length, and is supposed to contain 
about eleven acres of ground. Its North Bluff, so called, where is sit- 
uated the chief part of the land which is in any degree supplied with 
available soil, is quite elevated, being abo,ut thirty-five feet above high- 




pppplj!?!!' 

iliiil'iiil 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 47 

water mark. At the western extremity is a prominent point of land 
called Small-Pox Point, from the fact that for many years the Small-Pox 
Hospital was situated on it. 

The first known owner of this Island was Edward Rainsford, who was 
supposed to be of the town of Hull, and was sent over here by Mr. 
Owen Rowe, a wealthy London tradesman, who wrote to Governor 
Winthrop in 1635, requesting that " Mr. Rainsford may be accommo- 
dated with lands for a farme to keepe my cattele, that so my stocks may 
be preserved." 

The chief use of the island was for the pasturage of cattle; and, as 
Elder Rainsford had charge of those sent over by Mr. Rowe, it is sup- 
posed that he obtained a grant of the island for that purpose. 

The island passed through various hands till 1 736, when it was pur- 
chased by the colony for the sum of ;(^570, to be used for the purpose 
of " building a suitable and convenient House on Rainsford Island, 
lying between Long Island and the Maine Land near the town of Hull, 
to be used and improved as a publick hospital for the reception and ac- 
commodation of such sick and infectious persons as shall be sent there 
by order." 

In a preceding chapter on Spectacle Island an account was given of 
the first Quarantine started by the town of Boston on that island. 

After nearly twenty years' use of that locality, there was a feeling in 
the community that the right place had not been selected. Spectacle 
Island was too near the town, and was among other occupied islands. 
It had no good road near it for the anchorage of detained vessels, and 
was also suitable for pasturage, containing as it did about sixty acres of 
good grass land. This, therefore, was the reason for transferring the 
hospital to Rainsford Island. 

The present quarantine ground is near Deer Island, and also extends 
so as to include Gallop's Island. On the Great Head, upon the easterly 



48 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



part of North Bluff, as it is called, is situated an airy-looking house, 
which in recent years has been occupied by the superintendent of the 
institution. West of this are two buildings, the most southerly of which 
was built in 1819, and is designated as the Old Hospital, the Mansion 
House of quarantine days; while that just north of it is known as the 
New Female Hospital. A short distance toward the wharf is a smaller 
building known as the Cottage. Not far hum this, and projecting 
southerly, is a long wharf, the ordinary means of approaching the island 
and its institutions. 

After passing the narrow neck or beach, and upon what is called 
West Head, is a pretentious-looking building resembling a Grecian 
temple. West of this is the burial ground, in which are many stones, 
which, if they could speak, would tell strange stories. Some of them 
dale back more than a hundred years. The remains of many of the 
old keepers of the island remain there in quiet slumber. The days 
are past, but not out of remembrance, when persons afllicted with sev- 
eral of the most loathsome infectious diseases were sent to the *' island," 
almost certainly to die. The enlightenment of the present day, how- 
ever, forbids all such outrages. 

The island is occupied now mostly by paupers, and a new house on 
the northwesterly side of the island has been recently erected for their 
accommodation. Rainsford Island, with its variety of handsome sub- 
stantial buildings, and its hills, rocks, and beaches, trees and shrubbery, 
presents one of the most attractive features of the harbor. 

South of Fort Warren, and separated from the main-land by Hull 
Gut, is situated Pettick's Island, about a mile long and an average width 
of about a quarter of a mile. The island is divided into two hills called 
the East and West Heads, between which there is a smaller hill, and 
just south of this there is an island bluff called Prince's Head. 

The earliest information we have concerning tliis island is from 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 49 

Morton of Ma-re Mount, who obtained some important facts from ihe 
Indians, who informed him that, previous to the arrival of any of the 
EngHsh, a French ship came into the harbor to trade, and while lying 
at anchor by an island, afterward called Pettick's Island, the Indians 
set upon the men at a disadvantage, killed many of them, and burnt the 
ship. The captives they distributed among five sachems of different 
tribes. 

This statement agrees with what Dr. Mather afterward relates of the 
same tragedy. His informant gave him^the name of the Frenchman 
living in his time, which was Monsieur Finch. The Indians treated 
their prisoners in a barbarous manner, and eventually killed them all 
but three or four. These they sent as curiosities about the country from 
one sachem to another. Some years after, when Captain Dermer was 
at Cape Cod, he found two of them alive, whom he redeemed out of 
their hands. When the English inquired of them why they had killed 
the Frenchmen, they justified themselves on some frivolous grounds; 
and, when they were told that the great God was angry with them, they 
looked significantly at one another, and inquired sneeringly of the Eng- 
lish if they thought they were such fools as to believe that God could 
kill all the Indians. 

Immediately after the Indians so cruelly treated the French sailors, a 
deadly sickness, supposed to be the small-pox, broke out among the In- 
dians, which, as old authors say, caused them " to die in heaps all up 
and down the country, insomuch that the living were in no wise able to 
bury the dead." This the Indians considered a retribution on them for 
their wickedness. 

Pettick's Island was granted to Charlestown in 1634 for twenty-one 
years, for the yearly rent of twenty shillings. In 1 635 the rent was re- 
duced to twelve pence. Before the lease expired, the town of Nantasket 
or Hull was commenced, and the island confirmed to it, and divided 



5^ OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

into lots of four acres each, and given to those who took two-acre lots 
at Hull, This island has always from that time been kept as private 
property, 

In 1684 the Indian Josiah relinquished all his claim to the estate in 
the right cif his father and grandfather. 

A pilot for the various approaches to Weymouth and Hingham re- 
sides on the east side of the island opposite Hull, whose farm-build- 
ings, orchard, and so forth, are nestled in ihe valley between the two 
great hills, presenting a very cheerful, home-like appearance. 



ILLUSTR.\TED HISTORY 5I 



CHAPTER XII. 



HULL VISITED BY EARLY NAVIGATORS. — POINT ALLERTON AND ITS 
MONUMENT. — DESCRIPTION OF SHEEP ISLAND. — PUMPKIN ISLAND 
GRANTED TO WEYMOUTH. — SAMUEL WARD LEAVES IT TO HARVARD 
COLLEGE. — WHITE HEAD.— WORLD'S END.— DESCRIPTION OF WEIR 
RIVER. — COHASSET ROCKS. — NANTASKET BEACH. — DESCRIPTION OF 
WRECKS ON SAME DURING THE WINTER SEASON. 

To the eastward of Pettick's Island, situated on the extreme end of 
the main-land, is the town of Hull, separated from Pettick's Island by 
" Hull Gut," through which flows the waters that form the southeast 
part of the harbor, creating a veiy strong current, and, when the tide 
and wind are in opposite directions, making considerable of a sea. 

On the north of Hull will be noticed, at the end of the bar that makes 
out in the direction of Boston Light, a monument of a pyramid shape; 
this is on the end of Point Allerton, which has its Great Hill and Little 
Hill. At the end of the latter is the monument. 

Frequent allusions have been made in these pages to Nantasket and 
Point Allerton, both of which are included in the town of Hull. Point 
Allerton is supposed to be the place visited by the Northmen in 1004, 
and described by them as an " abrupt promontory, well covered with 
forest trees," and named by them Krossaness; and also the place 
on which Myles Standish and his party landed when they explored 
Boston Harbor, in 1621, and found there lobsters which had been 
gathered by the Indians, and met a woman coming for them, and 
"contented" her for them. At this Place Captain Squib put ashore 
the colonist that settled Dorchester, in the year 1636. A part 



rib 



52 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



of them went and explored the Charles River up as far as Watertown 
in a boat they secured of an old planter; and the remainder went around 
by land till they came to Dorchester, where they decided to settle. 

Hull was evidently settled by traders before the arrival of Winthrop's 
colony, and is the smallest town in the New- England States. The in- 
habitants mostly obtain their living by fishing, and of late years many 
fine residences have been erected here, which are occupied in the sum- 
mer season by pleasure -seekers, and the town is fast becoming famous 
as a healthy, cool location for summer residences. 

Hull is reached by the steamers of the Boston and Hingham Steam- 
boat Company, and is the first place touched at after leaving Rowe's 
Wharf. 

The steamer, again proceeding on her course in a southeasterly di- 
rection, will next come to Sheep Island, anciently known as Sun Island. 
It contains but two acres, and must have been a poor place to keep 
sheep, although in the olden time it was valued for that purpose. The 
surface of the island is but a few feet above the water, and is fast wash- 
ing away. 

To the eastward of Sheep Island is Pumpkin Island, sometimes called 
Bumpkin Island. It contains about fifty acres of good pasture-land, 
and is beautifully situated in Hull shoals. The island was granted to 
the town of Weymouth in 1636, and in course of time this beautiful 
island is found in the possession of Mr, Samuel Ward, who in early col- 
ony days was a great land-owner; and by his will, executed in 1681, he 
bequeathed the island to Harvard College, in the following words : — 

" The Island that I have given to the Colidge, which Lyeth Betwixte 
hingham and hull called Bomkin Island; my mind is that it shall be, 
and Remain for eveer, to harford Coledge, in newengland : the Rentt 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



53 



of itt to -be for the easmentt of the charges of the Diatte of the Stu 
danttse that are in commonse." 

The island is now valued at about twelve hundred dollars, and pro- 
duces an income of about fift>' dollars a year. In former years there 
was a farm-house on the island: but now it is uninhabited. 



^>g 




VIEW OF HULL. 

The ruins of the cellar can be seen on the south side of the island, 
as well as the remains of an old wharf or landing; a well of good water, 
which is often used by camping-parties, can be found quite near the 
old landing. Several stone walls will also be observed crossing the 
island, all of which show that, at one time, the island was probably 
well farmed'. 

After passing Pumpkin Island, and continuing in a southeasterly 
course, we reach the entrance to Weir River. The neck of land on the 
left hand, on entering the river, is known as WTiite Head; and the cu- 
rious round peninsula attached by a slender bar to Planter's Hill, on the 



54 



OF BOSTON HARBOR, 



right hand, is World's End, and is situated in the town of Hingham. 
The scenery in this river is very beautiful, some portions of it bordered 
with grand cliffs, and some little distance up the river both shores are 
clothed vi'ith forests with scarcely a sign of human habitation. In fact, 
a person might imagine himself a hundred miles away from Boston, as 
far as any appearance of civilization is concerned; and yet it is less than 
an hour's sail. This is one of the most favorite resorts in the harbor 




NANTASKET BEACH. 



for camping parties, many persons staying here nearly the whole sum- 
mer, camping in tents in the woods. One arm of the river approaches 
quite near the ocean, only a narrow strip of beach — the famous Nan- 
tasket — keeping it from entering the river. 

Here is b-tilt the steamboat wharf, and is the end of the route of the 
Nautasket steamers. Many fine hotels are erected on the beach, and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



55 



also extending in a southeasterly direction along the Cohasset shore are 
many fine hotels and summer residences away up on the rocks. This is 
the commencement of that " stern and rock-bound coast " which sur- 
rounds nearly all of Massachusetts Bay. Along the verge of the cliffs 
the sea dashes the surf frequently over the buildings, drenching them, 
and for an instant showing in the sun the fleeting hues of the rainbow. 
Now and then, when standing on the brink of some table-rock, the 




BLACK ROCK. 

plunge of a billow underneath causes a sensible tremor. A rock pro- 
jecting out into the ocean, and known as Black Rock, presents a grand 
sight during a northeasterly storm; the sea breaking completely over it, 
and drenching it with spray. 

In a northerly direction is Nantasket Beach, five miles long, of hard, 
smooth sand, the finest beach in New England. Surf-bathing and dri- 
ving can be enjoyed on the beach, and lovers of natural scenery will 



56 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



find much to amuse and interest them; the numerous Hotels and Res- 
taurants scattered along the shore ofifering ample refreshments for the 
inner man. 

In many places along the beach timbers of wrecked vessels are met 
with, deeply bedded in the sand, the ribs of which, projecting out of the 




WRECK ON NANTASKEl' BEACH. 



sand, have the appearance of formidable teeth belonging to some sea 
monster. 

During the winter season, many wrecks occur on this beach. Vessels 
on entering Boston Harbor mistake their bearings on dark nights, or 
are driven, in cold, blinding snow-storms, on to this inhospitable shore, 
and many lives and much property are lost yearly. In Hull, a number 
of signs, the names of various vessels cast ashore here during the past 



ILLrSTR.\TED HISTORY 



57 



few years, may be obsen-ed nailed around the music stand in the centre 

of the town. 

For a number of years the people of Hull bore rather a hard name, 
on account of their wrecking propensities; for many of them recog- 
nized the truth of the old saying, that " it is an ill wind that blows no 
one any good." Many readers will probably remember of the wreck of 
the bark "Kadosh" which took place here a few years ago, in which 
man" lives we'-e lo'^'- 




WRECK OF THE " KADOSH; 



This chapter completes the first and most important route down the 
harbor. All the islands and points of interest described in previous 
chapters can be seen on this route by taking the Nantasket and Hull 
Steamer of the Hingham Steamboat Company, at Rowe's Wharf, Atlantic 

Avenue. 

Another line of boats belonging to the same company, and stopping 
at Downer Landing and Hingham, ^vill be described in route No. 2, in 
the next chapter. 



S8 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ROUTE SECOND. — FROM ROWE's WH.\RF TO HINGHAM. — DESCRIPTION 
OF DOWNER LANDING, FORMERLY CROW POINT. — A FAMOUS RESORT 
FOR EXCURSIONISTS. — MELVILLE GARDEN. — ROSE STANDISH HOUSE. 
— RAGGED ISLAND. — WALTON GROVE. — VARIOUS ATTRACTIONS OF 
THE PLACE. — HINGHAM, AND ITS HARBOR AND ISLANDS. — THE OLD 
MEETING-HOUSE ERECTED IN l6Sl. — LAST RESTING-PLACE OF GOV. 
AliDREW. — DESCRIITION OF THE TOWN. 

The Boston and Hingham steamboats, starting from Rowe's Wharf, 
pursue the same course as the other steamers of the same line that run 
to Nantasket Beach, as described in the previous chapter, till they reach 
Pumpkin Island, or about off the entrance to Weir River, when they 
continue on to the south, and in a short time reach Downer Landing, 
formerly called Crow Point. 

A few years ago, Mr. Downer, the well-known refiner of kerosene 
oil, bought the point, intending to improve it, and make a summer re- 
sort of it for himself and friends; but soon the beauties of the place 
became known, and he opened the grounds to the public, and it is now 
one of the finest pleasure resorts in New England. The grounds of the 
garden cover over ten acres, and here can be found every variety of 
amusement for picnic parties and daily excursionists, such as bowling 
and shooting alleys, swings, tilts, flying horses, and so forth. A large, 
handsome, and commodious hotel, the " Rose Standish House," and an 
excellent restaurant and music hall, row-boats, yachts with reliable skip- 
pers, a Punch and Judy show, and monkey cage containing every con- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 59 

ceivable species of monkeys, clam-bakes, a large camera obscura, and 
many other things too numerous too mention, are among the attractions 
of this place. 

The gardens are open every evening except Monday, and are illum- 
inated with twenty Electric lights. Patrons can dance or listen to the 
music of Edmands' Band, day and evening. 

Ragged Island, a small rocky island a short distance from Melville 
Garden, is connected with it by a ferry-boat which makes frequent trips 
to and from this beautiful and romantic island. The island has every 
convenience for picnic parties, such as shades, pavilions, and i-estau- 
rants. A bridge from the garden connects it with a beautiful grove of 
ten acres, abounding in rocks and glens, and including a beai'tiful sheet 
of water which was made by a dam across Walton Cove, and what was 
formerly mud flats is now changed into a beautiful lake. 

Mr. Downer, who has given his own name to the place, has expend- 
ed a large fortune in laying out the grounds, and in executing his plans 
for making them the most desirable spot to be found in the harbor, 
thereby realizing almost the ideal of an elysian field for the tourist or 
pleasure-seeker. How well he has succeeded after many years of labor- 
ious toil must be left to the verdict of the visitor. 

Pursuing a course due south, and passing the strait between Crow 
Point, now Downer Landing, on the west, and Planter's Hill on the 
east, the tourist will enter Hingham Harbor, and will notice first Button 
Island, then Ragged Island with the pavilion on it, and next Sarah and 
Langley Island, after which he will soon reach the steamboat wharf, 
and will have arrived in the town of Hingham, one of the oldest and 
w ealthiest towns in the State, and noted for its beautiful scenery and 
pleasant drives, through its tree-lined streets and woodland roads. The 
old meeting-house, erected in 1 681, is the oldest meeting-house in New 
England, and is in a good state of preservation, and good for some 
hundred of years yet to come. 



6o OF BOSTON HARBuR. 

In the cemetery connected with it rest the remains of the late John 
A. Andrew, the " War Governor of Massachusetts," to whose memory 
an elegant marble statue has been erected. A simple monument marks 
the resting-place of Major-General Benjamin Lincoln of Revolutionary 
fame, in the same cemetery. 

Hingham was once noted for its fishing business; but now the wharves 
are deserted. Later it was well known for its manufacture of wooden- 
ware; but at the present time but little is doing in that business. Hing- 
ham at present resembles an old wealthy English country town. The 
old inhabitants are very conservative, and are living on the fruits of 
past labor, and taking life easily in their beautiful tov/n. 




RAGGED ISLAND. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY ^j 



CHAPTER XIV, 

ROUTE THIRD: FROM INDIA WHARF TO NAHANT. — POINT SHIRLEY, 
FORMERLY PULLING POINT. — THE DERIVATION OF THE NAME. — CAP- 
TAIN MUGFORD. — REMARKABLE EXPLOIT THERE DURING THE REVO- 
LUTIONARY WAR. — CUTTING OUT THE POWDER SHIP. — FIGHT IN 
SHIRLEY GUT, AND DEATH OF CAPTAIN MUGFORD. — NAHANT BOUGHT 
OF BLACK WILLDIM, THE INDIAN CHIEF. — THE FORESTS DESTROYED- 
— INFESTED WITH WOLVES, BEARS, AND WILD BEASTS. — DESCRIP- 
TION AND EARLY HISTORY. 

Leaving the foot of India Wharf by way of the Nahant steamer, the 
reader will proceed down the harbor, pursuing the same course as de- 
scribed in Route i, till opposite Governor's Island, when the steamer 
will proceed in a northeasterly direction, passing very near to Apple 
Island, and between Point Shirley, formerly called Pulling Point, and 
Deer Island, through the passage known as " Shirley Gut." In refer- 
ence to the derivation of the name of Pulling Point, the following old 
account says : " Pulling-Point is so called because the boats are by the 
seasings or roads haled against the tide which is very strong, it is the 
usual channel for boats to pass into Mattachusets Bay." It was called 
Point Shirley in 1753, in honor of Governor Shirley. 

During the blockade of Boston in the time of the Revolutionary War, 
Captain James Mugford, of Marblehead, earned for himself at this spot 
a brief glory and most pathetic fame. He had been impressed on 
board of the British frigate " Lively " in Marblehead Harbor. His wife 
went aboard of the frigate, and, stating that they had just been married, 



62 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



demanded his release, which soon after was granted, but not before he 
had heard the sailors talking about a " powder ship "' which they were 
expecting from England. Resolving to capture her, he applied for a 
commission, but sailed before it came, thereby rendering himself and 
crew liable to be hung as pirates if captured. He sailed in a small fish- 
ing smack with twenty men. After lying in wait for some time, the 
vessel was seen approaching Boston Harbor. The men were sent be- 
low, where they were crowded into the cuddy; and the store-ship, not 
expecting an enemy in the peaceful-appearing fisherman, with only a 
few men on deck, allowed her to approach quite close, when Mugford 
and his men grappled with her, and the men, crowding out of the hold, 
boarded her, and captured her in sight of the whole British fleet, and 
carried her safely into Boston, at a time when Washington's stock of 
powder did not amount to more than nine rounds per man. If the ves- 
sel had been loaded with gold, it would not have been so valuable to 
the American army as this powder-ship. 

A few days after, waiting his opportunity to return to Marblehead 
without being observed by the British fleet, he sailed by way of Shirley 
Gut, but was cut off" by a swarm of boats from the British fleet then lying 
in Nantasket Roads. The fight was desperate, and in a hand-to-hand 
encounter Captain Mugford was killed while attempting to keep off" the 
boarders. But his vessel got away safely through the Gut, bearing his 
lifeless body to Marblehead, where a few days later the marine regiment 
of which he was captain buried it with solemn pomp. 

After passing through Shirley Gut, the reader will be outside of the 
harbor and in Massachusetts Bay. A few miles' sailing in a northeast- 
erly direction, and Nahant is reached; and, although not strictly coming 
within a history of Boston Harbor, yet as it is easily reached from the 
city by steamers, and contains many points of interest, we will give a 
brief description of it in this chapter. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



63 



Nahant belonged to the Indians for many years after the settlement 
of Salem and Lynn by the English. The name is said to signify, in the 
Indian language, an " island." It was purchased of the Indians by 
Farmer Dexter — who was the first land speculator of Nahant — in 1630 
for a suit of clothes, and was afterward again sold for " two pestle- 
stones." The original owner was an Indian chief named by the whites 




NAHANT ROCKS. 



" Black Will," who was cruelly killed at Richman Island, Scarborough, 
Me., in revenge for the murder of Walter Bagnall, who was killed by 
Indians in 1631. Black Will was hung unjustly, for he did not take any 
part in the murder; and, if he had, Gov. Winthrop says Bagnall was "a 
wicked fellow, and had much wronged the Indians." It seems that 
Farmer Dexter was not allowed to obtain possession of his purchase, for 



64 • OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

the town contested the title, yet it seems clear from the depositions that 
he really bought it of Black Will, or Duke Will, as he was sometimes 
called. The case was tried in court, and William Witter, farmer, testi- 
fied as follows : — 

" Black will or duke william so called came to my house (which was 
two or three miles from Nahant), when Thomas Dexter had bought 
Nahant for a suit of clothes, the said Black will Asked me what I would 
give him for the Land my house stood vppon it being his land, and his 
ffather's wigwame stood thereabouts. James Saggamore, being a youth 
was present, all of them acknowledging Blacke will to be the right own- 
er of the Land my house stood on and Sagamore Hill and Nahant was 
his. He bought Nahant and Sagomer Hill and Swampscoate of Black 
William for two pestle-stones." 

Nahant was used as a pasturage for cattle, many of the settlers even 
bringing their cattle from Salem. The place was well wooded, but was 
robbed of its wood, as the islands in Boston Harbor were, — for fire- 
wood; and when the peninsula was divided into lots in 1656, it was 
voted " that every person should clear his lot of wood in 6 years and he 
or they that do not clear their lotts of wood shall pay fifty shillings for 
the townes use." 

Efforts have been made of late years to rear trees of every description 
on Nahant, which so far, except in a few cases, have been unsuccessful; 
the young trees are probably killed by the salt-water spray blown over 
them during severe storms. In the storms the waves dash over the 
highest rocks around the shore. It is probable that trees of various 
kinds will flourish here as buildings multiply to break off the wind, and 
afford them shelter. 

The wolves, bears, and other wild beasts abounded here in such quan- 
tities that the train-band or militia were marched there in a body in 
1634 to hunt wolves; but the wolves have all disappeared from Nahant, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 65 

and the Indians are all gone, the trees cut down, and from the rudest 
spot of a rude people, it has become the resort of the most fashionable. 
Its broad and extensive beaches, its rugged, rock-bound shores, its nat- 
ural curiosities, such as the Pulpit Rock, Spouting Horn, Swallovr's 
Cave, the fishing, gunning, bathing, riding, and other amusements, all 
have their attraction, and by going to Nahant for a day can be seen and 
enjoyed. Hot as it is in the city, here you may ride, bathe, or fish in the 
day, and be sure of a good, cool, comfortable night's sleep afterward. 
The name and fame of Nahant have been rehearsed and sung in prose 
and poetry, and its rocks and beaches have been the theme of the histo- 
rian and the subject of the painter; and yet not half has been said, 
sung, or painted, and in the limited space of this small volume we can 
give only such facts as we may be able to gather in relation to its early 
history and present appearance. 

The Indian enjoyed it in all its natural beauty and freshness. We 
enjoy it shorn of much of its original beauty, but unimpaired in its solid 
and sublime grandeur. 

Nahant is a peninsula extending into the ocean, the shore is entirely 
rock-bound, and connected with the main-land by a beach three miles 
long of hard, smooth sand. 

About a mile from Nahant along the beach is Little Nahant, contain- 
ing about fifty acres. On Great Nahant are the village cottages, church, 
hotels, steamboat landing, and so forth. 



66 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER XV, 

ROUTE FOURTH. — FOSTER'S WHARF, LONG ISLAND, AND LOVELL'S 
GROVE. — THE WEST WAY. — MOON HEAD. — TO BE USED FOR THE 
TERMINUS TO THE SEWER. — THE INJURY IT WILL CAUSE THE HAR- 
BOR. — hangman's ISLAND USED BY LOBSTER FISHERMEN. — NUT 
ISLAND. — HOUGH'S NECK. — GRAPE ISLAND. — INDIAN RELICS RE- 
CENTLY DISCOVERED THERE. — BRITISH FORAGING PARTIES VISIT THE 
ISLAND. — FRIGHT OF THE INHABITANTS OF WEYMOUTH. — THE ISL- 
AND INHABITED AT PRESENT BY AN OLD SLAVER. — REMARKABLE 
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SAME. 

Proceeding down the harbor by way of the steamboat of the Boston 
Bay Steamboat Company, we go over the same course as described in 
Route I, as far as Long Island, where the steamboat makes a landing. 
Then, pursuing a southwesterly course between Spectacle Island and 
Long Island to what is known as the West Way or Back Way, the 
reader will come to Moon Head or Moon Island, one of the most mark- 
ed objects in the harbor, on account of the high bluff which it presents 
on its northerly side\ It is connected at low water with Squantum by a 
bar over which the cattle walk to the island. It has been used from 
time immemorial for pasturage, and is a famous spot for excursion par- 
ties to land for cooking and camping purposes. Clams in great abun- 
dance and of delicious flavor can be obtained by digging on the bar. 

But this island is soon to be put to a different use, which will forever 
put a stop to its being used for the above purposes. The reservoir of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



67 



the new sewer now in process of construction is intended to be built on 
this island, where all the sewage of Boston will be pumped, and emptied 
into the waters of the harbor, to fill up its channels and line its shores 
with filth. The clear blue waters of Quincy Bay will be contaminated 
and forsaken by the lobsters and fish with which it now abounds; the 
seals will no longer sport on its rocks, or its waters be sought in the fall 
of the year by the wild fowl. This beautiful bay, instead of being 
known by its pure water and air, will become as well known as Miller's 
River, the Back Bay, or the Roxbury canal were before their filthy waters 
were filled in; a place that will be forsaken alike both by man and the 
fowls of the air and the fishes of the sea; and from being one of the 
healthiest spots in the vicinity of Boston it will become as unhealthy 
and pestiferous as the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. 

It seems a strange fact that a city having the reputation that Boston 
has for its wealth and intelligence should not be guided by its former 
experience, and also that of other large cities, such as London and 
Paris, and utilize its sewage, and return it to the soil whence it came; 
for Massachusetts, with its sterile soil, can ill afford to lose that matter 
which would make a desert bloom. Neither can Boston afford to have 
its air contaminated or its channels filled up, for the waters of the harbor 
are not too deep as they are now. This sewage business savors too 
much of a job; and, if Boston is not careful, it may suffer as much finan- 
cially as it will in its salubrity, for here will be established an invitation 
to all the different contagious diseases that have afflicted the southern 
coasts to visit this now healthy region. And this all caused through the 
ignorance of our city officials, and cupidity of a few unscrupulous politi- 
cians. May the day be far distant before Moon Head and Quincy Bay 
are contaminated with this sewage, is the earnest prayer of the writer 
and all lovers of natural beauty and of Boston Harbor in particular. 

When near Moon Head, a view can be had of Squantum, and also 



es 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



the west side of Long Island, Rainsford Island, and Pettick's Island, all 
described in Route I. 

Passing Moo^n Head, the tourist enters Quincy Bay, the largest extent 
of water in Boston Harbor. It contains but few islands, and is nearly 
four miles across in each direction. Nearly in the centre of the bay is 
a small rocky island with a shanty on it; the island is known as Hang- 
man's Island, probably on account of its being used in olden times for 
the purpose of hanging pirates on, as many other islands were. The 




hangman's island, quincy bay. 



island is now inhabited during the summer season by several men en- 
gaged in lobster-fishing, who can be seen at all times in different parts 
of the bay, hauling up their lobster-pots. Numerous seals can be seen 
sporting about the rocks in this bay, which seems to be a favorable 
place for them; and in the fall of the year it is the resort of ducks, coot, 
and other wild fowl. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



09 



South of Pettick's Island is Nut Island, containing about six acres, 
connected by a bar with Hough's Neck, on which is Quincy Great Hill. 

Nut Island has been used recently by the United-States Government 
for the purpose of testing ordnance, under the supervision of Wiard; 
these fruitless experiments have cost the Government upward of half a 
million dollars. A few years ago a camping party attempting to cross 
to the island, with a horse and wagon over the bar, at high water, the 
team was capsized, and several persons drowned. 




LOBSTER-FISHERMAN. 



Continuing on in an easterly direction the tourist wll come to Grape 
Island, v^hich is between the entrance of Weymouth Fore River and 
Weymouth Back River. It contains fifty acres, and has two hills. A 
few weeks after the battle of Lexington, three sloops and a cutter came 
down from Boston, and anchored off the mouth of Fore River. The 
people of Weymouth were greatly alarmed. A landing was momenta- 
rily expected, and three hundred soldiers were reported marching on 



70 OF BOSTON H.A.RBOR. 

the town. Three alarm guns were tired, the bells rung, and the drum 
beat to arms, the alarm and confusion being ver>' great. Ever)' house 
below North Weymouth was deserted by the women and children. The 
minute-men poured in rapidly from Hingham, Randolph, and Braintree, 
and all the neighboring towns, till nearly two thousand of them were on 
the ground. Then it was discovered that the enemy were foraging, and 
engaged in removing hay from Grape Island. By this time they had 
secured about three tons. The minute-men had brought a sloop and 
lighter around from Hingham, on which they put out for the island, 
whereupon the enemy decamped, and no one was hurt. 

On another occasion, a few months later. Captain Goold of Wey- 
mouth, with twenty-five men, went out from Moon Head, and crossed 
over to Long Island, and burned a house and a barn full of hay. On 
this occasion they had a sharp skirmish, for the British men-of-war sent 
out their cutter to intercept the party. They all, however, got back 
safely, except one man of the covering force on Moon Head, who was 
killed by a cannon-ball. 

Grape Island has been inhabited from the first settlement of the har- 
bor, and used for fishing and farming purposes. The house now on the 
island is situated in a valley between two hills, near to deep water, 
where there is a good landing, and near a spring of fresh water. A 
short distance to the westward, on the bar, clams can be found in abun- 
dance. This must have been a favorite place of resort for the Indians, 
for the writer visited the island a short time ago, and obtained 
there three stone tomahawks or celts, that were used by the Indians, 
They were found in the rear of the house, in the garden, which is com- 
posed almost wholly of shells, resembling somewhat the shell-heaps of 
Florida. Captain Smith, the occupant of the house, has just removed 
about fifteen tons of stone from the garden. They were about a toot 
beneath the soil, and set up edgewise, forming a circle, the bottom 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY '* 

covered with beach gravel. Here the Indians built their fires till the 
stones were hot, then withdrew the fire, and placed the clams, lobsters, 
and corn, on Avhich wet seaweed was piled. The result was a delicious 
clam-bake. Quite a number of such places were found close together, 
and here were found the stone tomahawks. 

Captain Smith lives on the island all alone summer and winter, and 
lives on clams, lobsters, fish, and what little vegetables he can raise, and 
for 50 cents he will boil you a bucketful of clams. A few years ago it 
was stated in the papers that he had died during the winter and his re- 
mains were eaten up by the rats, but the old man is good for some win 
teis yet to come. 

This island takes its name from the fact that probably grapes abound- 
ed on it once when it was wooded, for considerable quantities are found 
yet ashore on the main-land but a short distance from the island, where 
there is the most beautiful woods in the harbor, affording a grateful 
shade to camping and excursion parties. The island is situated at the 
entrance to "Weymouth Back River, and the woods are on the east side 
of the river and extend back as far as Downer Landing, from which 
place the river can be reached, as that is the nearest place the steamer 
comes to Back River. The only direct way to reach the river is by 
yachts. 

This island was bought some years since by Mr. Samuel Litchfield, for 
$6,(XX), and is used for pasturing sheep and horses. 



72 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WEYMOUTH FORE RIVER. — CALLED WESSAGUSSET. — SETTLED BY WES- 
TON'S colony in 1622. — ARE IN A STARVING CONDITION. — THEY 
SEEK HELP FROM PLYMOUTH. — ROBBING THE INDIANS. — ONE OF 
THEIR NUMBER HUNG. — MASSACRE OF THE INDIANS BY MYLES 
STANDISH. — THE COLONY IS ABANDONED. — RACCOON ISLAND. — 
LOVELL's grove. — ITS ATTRACTIONS TO EXCURSIONISTS. 

The steamboat, passing to the westward of Grape Island, will enter 
Weymouth Fore River, the place of the earliest settlement made in Bos- 
ton Harbor, by Mr. Thomas Weston, and was called by the Indians 
Wessagusset. 

In 1622, Mr. Thomas Weston, a London merchant, sent over two 
vessels under the charge of his brother-in-law, Richard Greene. They 
were named the " Charity," of one hundred tons; and the " Swan," of 
thirty. The colony was made up of the roughest material, picked up in 
the streets and docks of London; among them was one surgeon, Mr. 
Salisbury, and a lawyer from Furnivall's Inn, afterward notoriously 
known as Thomas Morton of Merry Mount. Such as they were, how- 
ever, they safely landed at Plymouth toward the end of June, — some 
sixty stout fellows, without the remotest idea why they had come, or 
what they had come to do. The old settlers did not look upon them 
as a very desirable accession to the colony, especially as they early 
evinced a disinclination to honest labor, and a well-developed appetite 
for green corn. 

It was August before the party reached Wessagusset, and they select- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 73 

ed for their permament quarters the south shore of the Fore River. 
The larger ship, the " Charity/' returned to England; and the smaller 
one, the " Swan," remained for the use of the settlement. Enough sup- 
plies were left to last during the winter; but, as they were a wasteful, 
improvident set, they squandered most of their resources before the 
winter was begun, and, with their trading with the Indians, ruined the 
market, giving for a quart of corn what before would have bought a 
beaver-skin, thus occasionijig complaints by the prudent Plymouth set- 
tlers. 

At the beginning of New Years, the colony found itself face to face 
with dire want. The hungry settlers bartered every thing they had with 
the Indians, even to the clothes on their backs, and the blankets from 
their beds, in exchange for food. They made canoes for the Indians, 
and for a mere pittance of corn became their hewers of wood and draw- 
ers of water, thus making the fatal mistake of degrading themselves be- 
fore the Indians. 

During that long, dreary winter, they must have wished themselves 
back in the slums of London. The cold tide ebbed and flowed before 
their rude block -house, the frost was in the ground, and the snow was 
on it. Their ammunition was nearly exhausted, so that they cduld not 
kill game. They searched the woods for nuts, and followed out the 
tide, digging for clams. One poor fellow, in grubbing along the shore 
for shell-fish, sank into the mud, and, being weak, could not drag him- 
self out, and was found there dead. In all, ten perished. 

The settlers alternately cringed before the Indians, and abused them; 
and they, seeing them so poor and weak and helpless, first grew to de- 
spise and then to oppress them. Naturally starving men of their 
description had recourse to theft, and there was no one to steal from 
but the Indians; so the Indians found their hidden stores of corn dis- 
turbed, and knew just where to look for the thieves. This led to a bit- 



74 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

ter feeling among the Indians. The Indians would not lend or sell 
them any food; for they did not have any to spare. 

Finally the settlers thought of having recourse to violence. They 
sent a letter by an Indian messenger to the Plymonth people requesting 
them to assist them in taking from the Indians what was necessary by 
force; but the Plymouth magistrates would not countenance any such 
proceeding, neither could they send them any food, but advised them to 
worry through the winter, and live on nuts and shell-fish, as they them- 
selves were doing, especially as they enjoyed the additional advantage 
of having an oyster-bed, which the people of Plymouth had not. 

Meanwhile they continued robbing the Indians, who retaliated by 
treating the poor wretches like dogs, and threatened to treat them as 
they did the unfortunate Frenchmen a few years before, whose vessel 
they destroyed on Pettick's Island, and killed and made captives of the 
crew, whose knives and amis they displayed. 

Finally one unfortunate and skillful thief was detected, and bitter 
complaint made against him. The terror-stricken settlers offered to 
give him up to the savages to be dealt with as they saw fit; but the sa- 
chem replied, " Do ju.stice upon him yourselves, and let your neighbors 
do justice upon theirs," and then left the place indignantly, and the 
settlers, in their alarm, took the thief, and executed him in the presence 
of the Indians. 

But accounts differ as to whom they hung. Some say that the thief 
was an able-bodied man, whom they could ill afford to spare; that " he 
would stand them in some good steede, being younge and stronge, fit 
for resistance against an enemy;" and that "he was an able-bodied man 
that ranged the woodes to see what it would afford, he lighted by acci- 
dent on an Indian barne and from thence did take a capful of corne." 
" And as they did all agree that one must die and one shall die this 
young mans clothes we will take off and put upon one that is old and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



75 



impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death that die hee must, 
put the young mans clothes on this man, and let the sick person be 
hanged in the other steede." And so the Weymouth hanging passed 
into history, and was accepted as historical truth. 

So through the hard, long, savage winter, those seventy poor hungry 
wretches shivered around their desolate habitations, or straggled about 
among the neighboring wigwams, in search of food. Meantime the 
depredations still went on, and the Indians grew more and more aggres- 
sive, and were now watching the Wessagusset settlement very closely, 
and were determined to rid themselves of their unwelcome neighbors. 
The settlers still, however, lived on in their reckless way, mixing freely 
with the savages, and taking no precaution against surprise; but one of 
their number was alarmed, and very early one morning, preparing a 
small pack, he took a hoe in his hand, and left the settlement as if in 
search of nuts or about to dig shell-fish, and, when unobserved by the 
Indians, plunged into the swamp, and began to make his way, thinly 
clothed and half starved, and without even a compass, in the direction 
of Plymouth, and soon after reached the settlement, exhausted but in 
safety. 

The next day, Myles Standish, with a little army of eight men, set 
sail, and reached the Fore River on the day following; and steered di- 
rectly for the " Swan," which was lying at her moorings. Greatly to 
his surprise he found her wholly deserted. A musket was fired, which 
attracted the attention of a few miserable wretches busy searching for 
nuts. Standish landed, and after some conversation with some of the 
principal men, promptly began his preparations to cruelly massacre the 
Indians. 

After an interview with their chief Pecksuot, plans were made to 
treacherously get all the Indians he could into his power, and then to 
kill them in cold blood. He accordingly invited them to meet him the 



^^ 



7^ OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

next day inside of his stockade, which the Indians did, they not suspect- 
ing treachery. Two of the chiefs, Pecksuot and Wituwamat, and two 
other of the principal Indians, met Standish and several of his men in a 
room, where they had a talk. Suddenly Standish gave the signal, and 
flung himself on Pecksuot, snatching his knife from his sheath on 
his neck, and stabbing him with it. The door was closed, and a life- 
and-death struggle ensued. The Indians were taken by surprise; but 
they fought hard, making little noise, but catching at their weapons, 
and struggling until they were cut almost to pieces. 

Finally Pecksuot, Wituwamat, and a third Indian were killed; while 
a fourth, a youth of eighteen, was overpowered and secured, whom 
Standish subsequently hung. 

There were eight warriors inside the stockade. Standish and his 
party killed four, and secured one, and Weston's people dispatched two 
more. One only escaped to give the alarm, which was rapidly spread 
through the Indian village. 

Standish immediately followed up his advantage, and started in pur- 
suit, and had gone no great distance when a file of Indians were seen 
approaching. Both parties hurried forward to secure the position of a 
rising ground near at hand. Standish got to it first, and the Indians at 
once scattered, sheltering themselves behind trees, and discharged a 
flight of arrows at their opponents, and then fled to the swamp; only 
one of the party being injured, a shot breaking his arm. 

The Weston colony now dispersed, Standish supplying them with 
corn, and with what they had robbed the Indians of was sufficient 
whereon to sustain life. Standish and his party returned, carrying with 
them the head of Wituwamat to ornament the Plymouth Block-House, 
as a terror to the Indians. Three men only remained, who had strag- 
gled off to an Indian settlement, and whom the Indians put to death in 
retaliation. 




LOVELL'S GROVE. 




PINE-r(JINT UOTKU 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 77 

Afterward, speaking of their fate, the Indians said, " When we killed 
your men, they cried and made ill-favored faces." They were proba- 
bly put to death with tortures, which distinguish Indian executions. 

Thus in failure, disgrace, and murder, ended the first attempt of a 
settlement at Weymouth; and, as we sail up this beautiful river, we can 
hardly conceive of the terrible sufferings and deeds of violence and 
bloodshed perpetrated on these now peaceful-appearing shores. 

On entering the river, a small rocky island will be observed on the 
right hand, or " starboard " as we should say when aboard ship. This 
is called Raccoon Island. 

After a delightful sail up the river, during which many beautiful views 
can be obtained of the surrounding country, we arrive at Quincy Point, 
where a bridge crosses the river, which here forms the dividing line be- 
tween Weymouth and Quincy. On the Weymouth side of the river, 
near the steamboat landing, is Lovell's Grove, one of the most charm- 
ing pleasure resorts in the harbor. There are many handsome buildings 
connected with the grove, such as the dance-halls, restaurant, billiard- 
hall, bowling-ally, and octagon, summer, and bath houses, and many 
devices provided for the entertainment of the old and young, such as 
tilting-boards, swings, flying-horses, and many other things that our 
space will not permit a full description of. 

Directly opposite the grove is the Pine-Point Hotel, where clam- 
bakes are provided daily, and where abundant refreshments of the 
choicest and best quality will be provided to hungry excursionists, who, 
while enjoying the good cheer that the house affords, can contrast their 
present condition with that of the starving settlers that once dwelt on 
this river. 



y8 OV BOSTON HARBOR. 



CHAPTER X\ II. 

ROUTE FIFTH. — YACHTING TRIP DOWN THE HARBOR. — DESCRIPTION 
OF THE YACHTING RENDEZVOUS AT SOUTH BOSTON. — DORCHESTER 
BAY. — SAVIN HILL. — COMMERCIAL POINT. — NEPONSET RIVER. — 
SQUANTUM — MOUNT WOLLOSTON. — SETTLEMENT OF SAME BY CAP- 
TAIN WOLOSTON. — THOMAS MORTON TAKES POSSESSION. — CALLED 
MERRY MOUNT. — MAY-POLE ERECTED. — DISPLEASURE OF THE PLY- 
MOUTH PEOPLE. — STANDISH BREAKS UP THE SETTLEMENT. 

The great yachting rendezvous of Boston and its vicinity is at South 
Boston Point, which is easily reached by horse-cars or in the summer 
season by the new line of steamers that ply between Foster's Wharf, City 
Point, ar^d Long Island. The great attractions that are offered to yachts- 
men at the Point is the depth of water, the yachts remaining afloat at 
all times, and a landing can be made at the different rafts at all stages 
of the tide. There is but little passing of vessels in Dorchester Bay, and 
the yachts run no danger of being run down at their moorings; and, 
again, the Point being the easternmost part of the main-land situated 
near the city, it gives the yachtsman a good start down the harbor, and, 
being so ready of access by means of the horse -cars, which run every 
few minutes, as a yachting rendezvous it cannot be surpassed by any 
place on the coast. There are located here the two principal Yacht 
Clubs of New England, — the Boston and the South-Boston Yacht 
Clubs. Both are incorporated associations, and have commodious 
houses, wharves, lockers, and so forth, and the best accommodations 
for yachtsmen that can be found anywhere. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



79 



Both Club Houses are located at the foot of Sixth Street, and com- 
mand a fine view of the harbor and islands. The yachts of each club 
are moored a short distance off shore, numbering several hundred of 
every conceivable rig, — sloops, schooners, steamers, and a great num- 
ber of cat-boats. This latter seems to be the favorite rig, as the boats 




BOSTON YACHT-CLUB HOUSE. 



can be easily managed, and for a few hours' sail in the bay it is the 
most convenient boat to have. 

Beside the yacht clubs, there are numerous hotels or shore-houses, at 
nearly all of which yachts can be hired with competent skippers if re- 
quired, each house having a wharf and float stage connected with it. 
Clam chowder, fish dinner, and other good things can also be procured 
there. The number of people visiting these estabhshments has been 
steadily increasing during the past few years. On Sundays or any holi- 



8o 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



day during the summer season, the Point is visited by immense crowds 
of people seeking a breath of pure sea air, and watching or participa- 
ting in a " sail " on Dorchester Bay. 

The vacant land that yet remains at the Point should certainly be 
taken by the city, and used for a public park; for there is no section of 
the city that offers the inducements in the warm weather that South- 
Boston Point does to the masses of the people that are unable to go to 
a longer distance into the country, and there is no more beautiful sight 
of a sultry day than to sit under the veranda of one of the beach-houses, 
and watch the yachts sailing with their snowy sails over the blue waters 
of the bay, bending gracefully to the freshing breeze. 

Two first-class hotels are situated here, — the Atlantic House and the 
Point-Pleasant House, — where board can be obtained for the summer 
months, so that the yachtsmen and others that enjoy sailing can be near 
their business, and enjoy better advanatges for boating than can be ob- 
tained by going to the beach at a much farther distance from home. 

This is also the only place in the city where open-sea bathing can be 
enjoyed. Free baths are provided for ladies and gentlemen, where 
bathing on the beach can be enjoyed in much warmer water than on 
the beaches at the entrance to the harbor. 

In this chapter we purpose to lay out a sailing route which will de- 
scribe different portions of the harbor not visited by the steamers. 
Starting from the " Point," and sailing in a southerly direction across 
Dorchester Bay, one of the first points of interest noticed will be Savin 
Hill, a high rocky hill situated on the end of a peninsula, and rising 
very abruptly from the water by which it is nearly surrounded. It is 
covered to its summit with very dense woods, mostly savin-trees, hence 
its name. It is mentioned in the third chapter of this work, where it is 
alluded to in Roger Clap's Narrative, and described as follows under the 
name of Rock Hill : — 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



8i 



" It seems many of these People were Trading men & at first design- 
ed Dorchester for a place of Trade and accordingly built a fort at Rock 
Hill wherein were several peices of ordinance near ye Waterside." 

Although this was selected from the first landing of the white men 
for a place of settlement, yet until the last few years no houses were 
built on it, with the exception of one on the north side of the hill, said to 
have been Washington's headquarters. Recently many fine residences 
have been erected here; two beautiful avenues are laid out that encir- 
cle the Hill, Savin-Hill Avenue and the Grampian Way. The residences 
bordering these avenues contain beautifully laid-out grounds; many of 
them being quite extensive. The hill is rocky, and with its woods, and 
the magnificent view that can be obtained of the surrounding country 
from its summit, cannot be surpassed by any other place in the vicinity 
of Boston; for, although it is within three miles of the State House, and 
also within the city limits, and in the midst of large and finely kept es- 
tates, surrounding handsome dwelling-houses, yet by ascending the hill 
the reader will plunge into a wilderness, where in some instances prog- 
ress is forbidden by beetling cliffs or thorny thickets, and where the 
forest is seen in its primitive wilderness, and as he reaches the brow of 
the rocky cliff that marks the summit, away off to the eastward can be 
seen old ocean and Nantasket's pride, her beaches, and the Brewsters, 
with their ragged storm-beaten shores, and to the north and west the 
vision gathers in the ever-enlarging metropolis and inland towns, and 
to the south is Quincy's beauties in rolling hills and ample plains, 
backed by the bold outlines of the Blue Hills, whence flows the beauti- 
ful Neponset River, entering the bay at the feet of the beholder, and 
the inland scenery is in lovely contrast with the ocean's broad expanse in 
the other distance. The view we give of Savin Hill is from the north- 
east, and made from a photograph. 

Directly south of Savin Hill is Commercial Point, situated on the 



82 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

west bank of the Neponset, where it enters the harbor. It has been 
used from the earliest settlement of Dorchester for the purpose its name 
indicates, and here the Dorchester people located their wharves, on 
account of there being a greater depth of water here, and also its shel- 
tered position and its situation at the entrance to the Neponset River, 
which has been of great importance at all periods of the history of New 
England, and which is about thirty miles from its source in Foxborough 
to Boston Harbor, and is navigable to Granite Bridge, and formerly to 
the Lower Mills, a distance of about four miles in a crooked course 
from Commercial Point. By the curious connection between the Charles 
River and Neponset River, by means of Mother Brook, it literally forms 
a large island of the territory consisting of Boston, Roxbury, West Rox- 
bury, Dorchester, Dedham, Newton, Brighton, and Brookline, and the 
entire distance can be passed in a small boat, that can be carried around 
the several dams that intercept its course, and produce, with the neigh- 
boring scenery, picturesque falls. 

This river separates Dorchester from Squantum, a place frequently 
mentioned in these pages, and closely connected with the history of the 
harbor, and the most picturesque and romantic spot in the harbor. The 
view we here present of that portion of it known as Squaw Rock, or, as 
it is called in the old records. Pulpit Rock, and often Chapel Rock, is 
made from a photograph, and shows a very correct view of the squaw's 
head or profile. Very few people living in Boston know of the natural 
beauties of this place, and of its attractions, or of this wonderful image 
of a squaw's head cut by nature in the solid rock. In fact, the summer 
resorts of the White Mountains and other far-off localities hundreds of 
miles away are better known to the average Bostonian than the superior 
attractions of the romantic and beautiful scenery of Boston Harbor, 
simply because interested parties connected with hotels, railroads, steam- 
boats, and so forth, spend thousands of dollars every year in adverti- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 83 

sing their different lines of travel to the summer resorts at the moun- 
tains, lakes, springs, and so forth, the attractions of which are in a great 
measure exaggerated. 

Squantum is about seven miles from Boston by road, over wnich a 
delightful drive can be had in the summer-time, and is about three miles 
from Long Wharf by water. The first description we have of it is in 
Myles Standish's account of his explorations in Boston Harbor and is 
supposed to have taken its name from Tisquantum, his Indian guide on 
that occasion, and is the place where he went ashore with his men, and 
marched three miles up the country, and came across an Indian Fort 
and village, containing only women, whom Tisquantum "would have 
rifled of their furs and corn, if he had not been constrained." 

The shores of Squantum are rocky, with a very good showing of trees 
on and about the place, relieving it of the nakedness that disfigures 
some of the islands and headlands of the harbor. There are also some 
beautiful walks and drives here through the lanes and roads, and the 
view that can be obtained from the summit of the rocks back of the ho- 
tel cannot be surpassed from any other point in the harbor. Here the 
reader can see the ocean and the harbor laid out before him like a pan- 
orama; and a magnificent view of the surrounding country, including 
Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, 
and Cohasset can be obtained from this place of observation. 

Squantum is surrounded on nearly all sides by water, and is separa- 
ted from Thompson's Island by what is known as Squantum Gut; but 
the current is nothing like as strong as in Hull Gut or Shirley Gut, 
The Hotel here is kept by Mr. William Reed, a veteran in the hotel 
business; and a better shot for wild fowl or a better boatman cannot be 
found on the coast, whl.h the writer knows by experience, having been 
in his company for over six months during a gunning and boating trip 



«PP 



84 
^ OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

to Florida in the winter season, starting from Squantum in November, 
and returning the next May, and sailing outside off the coast during the 
worst months for shipwrecks in the whole year, and making the trip in 
the cat-boat " Crosby," 26 feet long, which may be seen at the float- 
stage; and, if the reader should desire a sail in the harbor at any time, 
there is not a safer boat or more reliable skipper than Mr. Reed. 

Squantum was noted during the early part of the present century for 
the Squantum Feasts, held there not only by the fast young men of the 
time, but also by the staid and respectable old gentlemen of Boston and 
the neighboring towns. 

Squantum would make an excellent place for summer residences, or 
for a suburban park, and at the present time could be purchased at an 
extremely low figure. 

Passing through Squantum Gut, and sailing in an easterly direction 
by Moon Head, we enter Quincy Bay, on the south side of which will 
be noticed a hill covered over pretty thickly with houses. This is 
Mount Wollaston or Merry Mount, frequent mention of which has been 
made in these pages. About five years after the distrastrous attempt at 
settling "Weymouth, Thomas Morton, one of the settlers, and described 
as a lawyer of Furnival's Inn, London, persuaded Captain Woloston 
and three or four partners to settle at this place, which is but a short 
distance from Wessagusset. In September, 1625, Captain Woloston, 
with thirty adventurers, landed here, and began a plantation near where 
the house of John Quincy Adams now stands. During the absence of 
Captain Woloston to Virginia on a trading voyage, Morton instigated 
the settlers to rebel against Lieutenant Filcher, who was left in com- 
mand, and choose him in his stead. 

From this time dates all the future troubles of this place, of which so 
much has been said. Morton commenced his free-and-easy reign by 
setting up a May-pole, and christening the place Merry Mount, which 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 85 

was a lamentable spectacle to the Puritans at Plymouth. They called it 
an idol, — yea, they called it the Calf of Horeb, — and stood at defi- 
ance with the place, and called it Mount Dagon, and threatened to make 
it a woeful Mount, and not a Merry Mount. Having no cares, they 
gave themselves up to a gay and hilarious system of living, drinking and 
dancing around the May-pole adorned on the top with a buck's horns, 
like so many fanes or furies, as if they had revived the celebrated feasts 
of the Roman goddess. Flora, or the mad practices of the Bacchana- 
lians. Morton described the naming of the place as follows : — 

" And being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memori- 
al to after ages did devise to have it performed in solemn Revels and 
merriment after the old English custom and therefore brewed a barrel 
of excellent beare and provided a case of bottles to be spent in good 
cheer, for all comers of that day, and because they would make a com- 
plete thing of it they prepared a song for the occasion. And upon 
May-day they brought the May-pole to the place appointed with drums, 
gunnes, pistols, and other fitting instruments for that purpose and there 
erected it with the help of the Salvages that came there a purpose to 
see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of eighty foot was 
reared up, with a pair of buckshorns nayled one somewheare near the 
top of it, where it stood as a faire sea mark for directions how to find 
out the way to mine host of Ma-re-Mount. And we had a poem in 
readiness made which was fixed to the May-pole to shew the new name 
confirmed on the plantation. And this harmless mirth was much dis- 
tasteful to the Puritans, and from that time sought occasion against my 
honest Host of Ma-re-Mount to overthrow his undertakings and to de- 
stroy his plantation quite and clean." 

They were joined in their revels by the Indians; for Morton, by his 
kind treatment of them, secured their lasting friendship, they keeping 
him and the rest of the company supplied with game, thus showing how 



86 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

susceptible the Indians were to kind treatment. And this was another 
grievance to the Plymouth people that they should be on social terms 
with the savages; for by this they secured the trade in beaver-skins, 
and held very questionable relations with the Indian women, and there 
were fears of there being a mixed population soon. 

After fruitless efforts at reform, through written admonishments which 
the carnal Morton received in a most unsatisfactory spirit of contumely, 
the Pilgrim fathers of Plymouth despatched the redoubtable Myles 
Standish (who seems to have been a sort of border ruffian of his day) 
to the scene of trouble to set matters right the same as he did five years 
before when he murdered the Indians so treacherously at Weymouth. 
The following is what Standish says of the affair : — 

" So they resolved to take Morton by force. Which was accordingly 
done ; but they found him stand stifly in his defence having made fast 
his dors, armed his consorts, set divers dishes of powder and bullits 
ready on ye table and if they had not been over armed with drink, more 
hurt might have been done. They somaned him to yeeld, but he kept 
his house, and they could get nothing but scofes & scorns from him; 
but at length fearing they would do some violence to ye house, he and 
some of his crue came out, but not yeeld, but to shoote; but they were 
so steeld with drinks as their peeces were too heavie for them ; him self 
with a carbine (over charged & allmost halfe fild with powder & shote 
as was after found) had thought to have shot Captain Standish, but he 
stept to him & put by his piece & took him. Neither was ther any hurt 
done either side save yt one was so drunk yt he ran his own nose upon 
ye pointe of a sword yt one held before him as he entered yt house, but 
he lost but a little of his hott blood." 

The accounts of this affair widely differ. The following is Morton's 
description of it : — 

"Now Captain Shrimp (Morton's nickname for Standish) takes eight 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 87 

persons more to him and they imbarque with preparations against Ma- 
re Mount. Now the nine Worthies are approached; and mine Host 
(Morton) prepared, having intelligence by a Salvage that hastened in 
love from Wessagusset to give him notice of their intent. The nine 
Worthies comming before the Denne of this supposed monster, this 
seven headed hydra, as they termed him, and began to offer quarter if 
mine host (Morton) would yield, had the rest not bin from home, we 
would have given Capt. Shrimp, (a quondam Drummer), such a well- 
come as would have made him wish for a Drume as bigg as Diogenes' 
tubb that hee might have crept into it ought of sight. Yet to save the 
effusion of so much worthy bloud as would have issued out of the 
va\Ties of these 9 worthies of New Canaan if mine Host should have 
played upon them out of his port holes, for they came within danger 
like a flock of wild geese, as if they had bin tayled one to another as 
coults to be sold at a faier, mine host was content to yeeld upon quar- 
ter, and did capitulate with them, but mine Host had no sooner set open 
the dore and issued out, but instantly Captain Shrimp and the rest of 
the worthies stepped to him, layd hold of his armes, and had him downe 
and so eagerly was every man bent against him, not regarding any 
agreement made with such a carnal man that they fell upon him, as if 
they would have eaten him up. Captain Shrimp by this outrageous 
riot thus made himself master of mine Host of Ma-re Mount and dis- 
posed of what hee had at his plantation." 

Morton says that the conspirators " feasted their bodies and fell to 
tippeling as if they had obtained a great prize," in precisely the same 
manner as the state constables would do at the present day. 

A writer, describing Boston seventy years after the Meny-Mount 
affair, shows that the inhabitants here had not changed their ways 
during that period. He describes the place and people as follows : — 

" Every Stranger is forced to take notice that in Boston there is more 



gg OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

Religious Zelots than Honest men, more Parsons than Churches. 
That the people are very busy at detecting one another's failings, and 
he is accounted by their Church Governor a Meretorious Christian that 
betrays his Neighbor to a Whipping-post." 

And such cases of injustice and intolerance even prevail in this State 
to the present day; a case of which came to the writer's notice but re- 
cently, in an English paper, written by a tourist in Boston, who stated 
that while stopping at the Parker House, having some leisure time to 
spare he went across the street to the Court House, and was very much 
astonished to see hotel keepers and others fined or sent to prison for 
selling liquor, and was still further astonished, on returning to the hotel 
to dinner, to see some of the very judges at the bar drinking liquor, 
thus aiding and abetting the very crime which they had just sentenced 
men for committing. This of course must have occurred during the en- 
forcement of the prohibitory law a few years ago, and shows that we 
have yet considerable of the old Puritanical spirit of intolerance that 
hung the Quakers and other unbelievers, and burnt the witches, and 
massacred the Indians. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 89 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

WEYMOUTH BACK RIVER. — DELIGHTFUL CAMPING PLACE. — DESCRIP- 
TION OF SLATE ISLAND. — THE GREAT BREWSTER. — DESCRIPTION OF 
THE LIGHT-HOUSE. — IS DESTROYED BY THE BRITISH. — REBUILT IN 

1 783. — MIDDLE BREWSTER. — OUTER BREWSTER. — ITS ROMANTIC 
APPEARANCE. — CALF AND GREEN ISLAND. — THE GRAVES. — MANY 
WRECKS OCCUR ON THESE ISLANDS YEARLY. — MINOT'S-LEDGE LIGHT. 
— ITS DESTRUCTION IN THE GREAT STORM OF 185I. — REBUILT IN 

i860. 

Sailing in a southeasterly direction between Pettick's Island and 
Hough's Neck, past the entrance to the Weymouth Fore River, and be- 
tween Grape Island and Lower Neck, we enter Weymouth Back River, 
one of the most delightful camping places in the harbor. The easterly 
shore is well wooded, and the land is high and rocky. There is some 
beautiful scenery up the river, many parts of the shore being wooded to 
the water's edge, presenting a very picturesque and romantic appear- 
ance. 

The river can be ascended as far up as the falls at East Weymouth, 
and the sail or row up the river will amply repay the yachtsman for his 
trouble. Leaving Back River, and sailing in a northerly direction be- 
tween Grape Island and Slate Island, we leave the latter on the star- 
board. This island is composed of slate-stones, whence its name, and is 
covered with a dense thicket of elderberry and bayberry bushes. Quan- 
tities of slate have been obtained from this island years ago; and, al- 
though the material has not been of a remarkable quality for the 



■i 



90 



OF BOSTON HARBOR. 



protection of roofs, it has done good service for underpinning and for 
cellar walls. 

Lately a considerable part of the island has been taken away for bal- 
last, which ought to be stopped, for at the present rate of destruction 
nothing will be left of the island in a few years but a shoal. 




BOSTON LIGHT. 



Continuing on through Hull Gut, we soon come to the main ship- 
channel, lying between the promontory on the south, on which is situ- 
ated the town of Hull, and the cluster of islands and rocks on the north 
known as the Brewsters, on one of which is situated " Boston Light." 

Having described somewhat fully the islands of the harbor, and the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 9^ 

various passages around and among them, as well as the numerous 
small coves or harbors connected therewith, before closing this work 
we will say a few words about this singular group of islands lying at the 
entrance to the harbor. The first of these, as the harbor is left, is the 
Great Brewster, which contains about twenty-five acres of land, a great 
bluff very imperfectly protected by a sea-wall being very prominent on 
its " Southerly Point," so called. The island was bought in 1848 by the 
City of Boston of Mr. Lemuel Brackett, and a portion ceded to the Uni- 
ted States the following year for the purpose of building a sea-wall for 
the better protection of the harbor, the channels of which were rapidly 
shoaling from the washing-away of this island, the debris oi which 
formed a spit extending westerly a mile and a half long, which is dry at 
low tide, and upon the extremity of which is the Beacon, or Bug Light, 
mentioned in a previous chapter. The cottage seen on the island is the 
summer residence of the Hon. Benjamin Dean, who leased the island 
from the city. 

Southeast of the Great Brewster, and connected with it by a bar which 
is exposed at low water, is the Little Brewster, on which is situated the 
chief light-house of the harbor. 

The inhabitants of Boston began very early in the last century to 
consider the subject of establishing a light-house at the entrance to the 
harbor, so large had become their commerce with foreign countries. 
Accordingly in 1 71 5 an act was passed, " to build a light-house on the 
southernmost point of the Great Brewster called Beacon Island, because 
there had been a great discouragement to navigation by the loss of the 
lives and estates of several of His Majesties subjects, and that after the 
building of the light-house and kindling a light, in it to be kept from 
sun setting to sun rising, that an impost shall be paid by the masters of 
all Ships and Vessels, coming in and going out of the harbor. Except 



■■iBflill 



92 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

Coasters the duty of One Peny per Ton, Inwards and One Peny per 
Ton, Outwards, before they Load or Unload the Goods therein." 

The first light-house keeper was George Worthylake, who was 
brought up in the harbor, and whose father had been for many years a 
resident of the island where Fort Warren is now situated. He himself 
dwelt at Lovell's Island, where his farm was. He was paid fifty pounds 
for his services the first year, but had an increase the second year to 
seventy pounds on account of the loss of fifty-nine sheep which were 
drowned during the winter of 1 716, they having been driven into the 
sea by a storm through want of his care of them when obliged to attend 
the light-house. Mr. Worthylake was unfortunately drowned, together 
with his wife Ann and his daughter Ruth, off Noddle's Island, now East 
Boston, while on their way to the town. This incident was the origin 
of the ballad called the " Light-house Tragedy," which Franklin says 
he was induced by his brother to write, print, and sell about the street, 
and which he says sold prodigiously, though it was " wretched stuff." 

The old light-house was much injured by fire in 1751, and was struck 
seveial times by lightning. During the Revolutionary War it fared 
hard. A party went from Milton in 1775, and destroyed all its wood 
work and the lantern; and, after it had been repaired by the British Ad- 
miral Graves, it was destroyed again the same year. After the British 
evacuated Boston the Continentals began to bring their guns to bear on 
the fleet, and Mr. Ezekiel Price narrates that " about six o'clock June 
13, 1776, the cannon on Long Island began to play upon the shipping, 
which obliged them to weigh their anchors, and make the best of their 
way out of the harbor. As they passed Nantasket and the light-house 
our artillery gave them some shot from Nantasket Hill," [The earth- 
works can still be seen near the signal station at Hull.] " The enemy 
sent their boats on shore at Light-house Island and brought from thence 
a party there placed of Regulars, afterward which they destroyed the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 



93 



Light-house, and then the whole fleet made all the sail they could and 
went to sea steering their course eastward." 

The commander of this ship, the " Renown," of fifty guns, Captain 
Bangs, after taking off his men from the island, left a quantity of gun- 
powder so arranged that it took fire about an hour afterward, and blew 
up the brick tower. 

The present light-house was erected in 1783, but has been several 
times refitted since then with improved apparatus, and in i860 the old 
tower was raised in height, it now measuring ninety-eight feet above 
sea-level. The white tower with its black lantern and revolving light 
can be seen at a distance of sixteen nautical miles if the weather be fair 
and the sky clear, and is an imposing object with its neighbor the fog- 
horn when viewed from vessels on entering or leaving the harbor. 

Northeast of the Great Brewster is the Middle Brewster, composed 
almost entirely of rocks, but it has upon it about ten acres of fair soil 
fit for cultivation. This island has several neatly constructed houses on 
it, in which reside the families of fishermen and other seafaring men, 
and on the top of the island will be noticed a handsome square cottage, 
which is the summer residence of Augustus Russ, Esq. Farther east 
lies the Outer Brewster, apparently a huge mass of rocks cut up by the 
sea into ravines and chasms; yet within this rough exterior is contained 
an oasis of good soil and a natural pond and spring of fresh water. A 
small house stood in this fertile spot a few years ago, inhabited for a 
number of years by the late Mr. Austin, who owned the island, and led 
a hermit's life here for many years. He made an artificial harbor 
hewed out of the solid rock, which nearly divides it into two islands. 
This was intended for a haven for small vessels, and with a gate qt its 
niouih it furnished a good dock when occasion required. The owners 
of this property at one time expected to realize considerable by the sale 
of stone for building purposes. But now Mr. Austin is dead, the house 



94 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

burnt by roughs from the city, and the harbor destroyed by storms 
which have made such inroads of late years as to separate the island 
into tvvo parts in stormy weather. 

This island is one of the most romantic places near Boston, far sur- 
passing Nahant or any other place on the coast of Massachusetts Bay in 




AUSTIN S HARBOR, OUTER BREWSTER, 



its wild rocks, chasms, caves, and overhanging cliffs, and is the only 
island in the harbor where a landing cannot be made in all weather. 
During a storm the island is entirely unapproachable, and many lives 
have been lost in trying to land in stormy weather. There is also no 



1LLUSTIL\TED HISTORY 



95 



anchorage for a boat or vessel here at such times, and woe be to the 
vessel that should be driven on here in a storm, for she would go to 
pieces as soon as she struck, and no living soul could land on these 
rocks at such a time without being dashed to pieces. 
The writer was on this island a short time ago, and saw the remains of 




THE GORGE, OUTER BREWSTER. 



a coasting schooner strewed round about the rocks, and was informed 
by some fishermen on the Middle Brewster that she came on the rocks 
during a stormy night a few months previous. They discovered in the 
morning her masts on the rocks, and her anchor and chains, which she 



96 OF BOSTON HARBOR. 

had let go, but too late to save her from going on the rock and being 
dashed to pieces. Nothing was known as to what vessel it was, where 
from, or how many composed her crew. Every living being was lost. 
This occurs every year, and many are the vessels that have been dashed 
to atoms on the rocks of this island. 

The island is now owned by the Hon. Benjamin Dean, who bought 
it of Austin's heirs a few years since for ^i,ooo. It can hardly ever be 
put to any use on account of its unapproachable condition. As its name 
signifies, it is the outermost island in the harbor, extending beyond all 
others into the ocean. 

South of the Outer Brewster lie the Shag Rocks. These are danger- 
ous to mariners, and cause shipwrecks every year. In i860 the 
" Maritana " was lost here, and twenty-six men perished; and only a 
few months ago a Philadelphia collier was lost on these rocks, which fur- 
nished the Hull wreckers with their winter supply of coal. These rocks 
are nearly covered at high water. The frequent loss of vessels on these 
rocks should be sufficient warning to the United-States authorities to 
proceed at once to the erection of some suitable protection against such 
dreadful losses. 

As the Brewsters form the northern boundary to the harbor, so Point 
Allerton forms the southern. This point takes its name from Mr. Isaac 
Allerton, the famous agent of the Plymouth Company, and a passenger 
in the " May Flower" in 1620, and was so named by the Plymouth Pil- 
grims in one of their early visits here; and they called the islands at the 
entrance to the harbor " the Brewsters " in respect to his wife's brother 
and sister, the children of Mr. William Brew;,ter, the ruling elder of 
New Plymouth. 

North of the Great Brewster is Calf Island, containing ten acres and 
several houses. On this island is a very pretty grove of wild-cherry 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 97 

trees, some pleasant beaches, and wild basaltic rock. North of it is the 
Little Calf, so called, which is uninhabited. 

Just north of the above-mentioned group is the Hypocrite Channel, a 
very dangerous passage, but little used at the present time, but in for- 
mer years considered one of the principal entrances to the harbor. 
Through this channel we will sail on our return to the harbor, leaving 
on our starboard Greene Island, the least pleasantly situated of all the 
islands at the entrance of the harbor, yet it is not uninhabited, and at 
the time of the destruction of Minot's-Ledge Light in 1851, the tide rose 
so high that its two inhabitants had to be taken off in one of the pilot 
boats. 

On this island resided many years a strange being, singular in his 
habits, and possessing a very independent spirit. Mr, Choate was not 
far from seventy years of age when he was forced to leave his chosen 
abode of twenty years, in the winter of 1865, and accept the protection 
of the Harbor Police. It seems in his younger days he was an ordina- 
ry seaman, and about the year 1845 he built himself a rudely construct- 
ed hut on this island, and sustained himself by fishing, subsisting on 
fish, lobsters, and muscles. The severity of the weather was such that 
he must have perished but for his timely rescue. He was sent to the 
almshouse at Bridgewater, where he subsequently died. 

Northwest of Greene and Calf Islands are Alderidge's Ledge, Half- 
Tide Rocks, the Devil's Back (dry at low water), Maffit's Ledge, Com- 
missioner's Ledge, and Barrel Rock. This last rock was a great 
obstruction to navigation, and was entirely removed in 1869. It was 
an immense boulder of Medford granite, and was undoubtedly carried 
there by some ancient glacier. 

To the eastward are Martin's Ledge, Boston Ledge, and Roaring 
Bulls; and to the southeast are Thieves' Ledge (a noted fishing 
ground), and Harding's Ledge, the most dangerous obstacles to the en- 



98 



OF BOSTON IIARBOR. 



trance to the harbor, on which many vessels are lost. A few years ago 
a steamer went to pieces on these rocks. The Big Harding is four feet 
out of water at low tide. On this ledge is placed a bell-buoy and bea- 
con. 

Northeast of the Brewsters is the Graves, on which there is a horn- 
buoy, whose dismal notes can be heard at all times, caused by the rising 
and falling of the sea, which forces the air through the horn, making a 




THE GRAVES. 



most mournful sound, like a funeral dirge for the many deaths that 
have occurred on its treacherous rocks, so truly and fearfully named, 
for they have too often proved to be the graves of the sea-tossed and 
worn-out mariner when in sight of his home and friends, after sup- 
posing all trials and dangers were passed. A landing on these rocks 
can be made only when the sea is smooth. In storms they are com- 
pletely washed, and the surf breaks over the highest part of them. 
Six miles southeast of the Hardings is Minot's-Ledge Light, built on 



ILLUSTPwUED HISTORY 



99 



the extreme end of the ledge, which extends out about two miles into 
the ocean from the Cohasset shore, and is the most dangerously situated 
light-house on the Atlantic coast, rising as it does from the waters to a 
great height, and in rough weather the sea breaks completely over it, 
swaying the solid tower of rock violently to and fro, so that a bucket of 
water slops over, leaving it only about half full. The foundation is be- 
neath tlie water, and is partially artificial, as there was not sufficient 
rock there to build the light-house on without adding to it. During the 
great storm of April i6, 1851, the light-house was destroyed, and the 
keepers lost their lives. The foundation stone of the present tower was 
laid in 1858, and the light-house completed in i860. 

Returning to the harbor by way of the Hypocrite Channel, Broad 
Sound and President's Roads, as marked on the map with dotted lines, 
we arrive back again at City Point, our place of departure ; and with 
this chapter the description of the islands and harbor closes. 



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